[51] Sedgwick did his best to enlighten the poet by his famous _Four Letters on the Geology of the Lake District_; but these came too late. They were published at Kendal in 1846, and Wordsworth died in 1850. [52] Some drill and bore The solid earth, and from the strata there Extract a register, by which we learn, That He who made it, and revealed its date To Moses, was mistaken in its age. --_The Task_, bk. iii. 150. [53] You may trace him oft By scars which his activity has left Beside our roads and pathways, though, thank Heaven, This covert nook reports not of his hand-- He who with pocket-hammer smites the edge Of luckless rock or prominent stone, disguised In weather-stains or crusted o'er by Nature With her first growths, detaching by the stroke A chip or splinter--to resolve his doubts: And, with that ready answer satisfied, The substance classes by some barbarous name, And hurries on; or from the fragments picks His specimen, if but haply interveined With sparkling mineral, or should crystal cube Lurk in its cells--and thinks himself enriched, Wealthier, and doubtless wiser, than before! _The Excursion_, bk. iii. [54] _St. Ronan's Well_, chap. ii. The passage is quoted postea p. 166. IV The Origin of the Scenery of the British Islands[55] The insular position of these islands, which we are apt to regard as an essential and aboriginal feature, is merely accidental, and has not always been maintained. The intimate relation of Britain with the Continent is well shown by the Admiralty charts. If the west of Europe were elevated 200 feet--that is, the height of the London Monument--the Straits of Dover, half of the North Sea, and a large part of the English Channel would be turned into dry land. If the elevation extended to 600 feet--that is, merely the united heights of St. Paul's and the Monument--the whole of the North Sea, the Baltic, and the English Channel would become land. There would likewise be added to the European area a belt of territory from 100 to 150 miles broad, stretching to the west of Ireland and Scotland.