66 
in the Lake District, with its resemblance to "till," especially 
where it is somewhat decomposed. Its large angular and 
subangular stones, its position in isolated patches, and in the 
valleys, suggest its glacial origin. But the subsequent 
action of water is also indicated by the following facts : — 
(1) Scratched stones, so common in the till, are at least 
rare.* 
(2) There is less matrix than in more recent till, and 
it is more sandy. 
(3) Although many of the stones stand on end, jet, 
on the Yfhole, they seem to lie more horizontally 
than would be expected had the}^ been left undis- 
turbed. 
Finally, we have the question. Are these beds to be con- 
sidered as old red sandstone or carboniferous ? The materials 
which compose the beds were removed from the silurian land 
and deposited not very far from their present position during 
the old red period, but their present form and arrangement 
are the result of those changes in level which brought the 
^carboniferous limestone round the Cumbrian region ; the 
waters which washed up the valleys and spread out the old 
drifts, were, at the same time, depositing limestone out at sea, 
and this limestone, as the water deepened, spread over the 
rearranged drifts. It seems, therefore, simpler and more 
logical to consider these beds, one and all, as basement beds 
of the carboniferous limestone than to attempt to draw any 
arbitrary line in a series whose members appear so closely 
linked together. At the same time, the question as to the 
name is of secondary importance. 
* Professor Ramsay has noticed the occurrence of scratched stones. 
Professor McKenny Hughes, in a paper read hefore this Society, in 1867, 
pointed out that these stones are only found where the scratches might have 
been caused by subsequent disturbance. This explanation, however, does not 
seem quite satisfactory. 
