“What was the condition of our present mountain tract during the great Carboniferous period? Was it wholly submerged after the elevation and denudation to which we have already seen it subject, or was there always a nucleus of dry land—an embryo of Cumbria—around which the Carboniferous deposits were laid down? I do not think this is a question that can ever be decidedly answered.”

It is a question which has frequently been asked, and the answer given are various. In the present communication I intend to loo at it from a somewhat different point of view from that in which has usually been approached, though the view here adopted in man respects resembles that taken by the late Mr. Hopkins.