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the rocks of this district should be regarded as stratified or
unstratified. It is true they present little of that regularity
of appearance which is observable in the rocks of many other
districts; yet it will be admitted on due examination that they
are in some degree stratified.
Granite is understood to occupy the lowest place in the series of
rocks hitherto exposed to human observation, and it appears to be
the foundation upon which all the others have been deposited; in
some countries it also constitutes the peaks of the highest
mountains, protruding itself through all the upper or newer
formations. That however is not the case in the district under
consideration. It is here only exposed to view in the excavated
parts of some of the mountains; or where it rises so far as to
form hills or ridges, they are of inferior elevation.
That rock of granite which seems best entitled to the distinction
of primitive, may be seen denudated in the bed of the river
Caldew, near the north-east side of Skiddaw; and in a branch of
the river Greta, between Skiddaw and Saddleback, about 1400 feet
above the level of the sea. This granite is of a grey kind,
composed of quartz, white felspar, and black mica. It is
traversed in various directions by veins of quartz; in some of
which, molybdena, apatite, tungsten, wolfram, and other minerals
have been found.
A variety of granite with reddish felspar, and which from a
deficiency of mica, has sometimes been
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