196 



HAEDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



latterly a passage has beeu made by blasting for the 

 convenience of visitors. After proceeding for some 

 distance, a large charciber, called the Grand Saloon, 

 is reached, about 220 feet square, and in some places 

 120 feet in height. Leaving this apartment by 

 means of a steep and rugged pathway, the Chancel, 

 a naturally-formed gallery, is reached, and then de- 

 scending by another path, the visitor arrives at the 

 Devil's Cellar. The other large chambers in this 

 cavern are Gloucester Hall and Great Tom of Lin- 

 coln, the latter being so designated from its having 

 a regular concavity in the roof resembling the form 

 of a bell. 



Fig. 126. Ithynchonella pugnus—Doisal aspect. 



On the eastern side of the Castle Hill runs Cave 

 Dale, a rocky glen, in which the mountain limestone 

 is well exposed. The approach to this narrow 

 defile has rather a forbidding aspect, the entrance 

 being by a cleft in the mountain not more than five 

 or six feet in width, which is guarded by a mass of 

 toadstone. Passing this, the dell is found to be 

 hemmed in by great masses of mountain limestone, 

 in which specimens of Uhynchonella pugmis, Tere- 

 hratula hastata, Cardioffiorphci oblonga (?), and 

 several species of Producta abound ; and from the 

 shales which occur there a small Conocardimn or 

 Fleurorhynclius is obtained, whilst Orthis resupinata 

 is frequently met with at other localities in the 

 neighbourhood. 



Y\%. 127. R.p«^«i(s— Front view, 



Rhynchonella pugnus (fig. 126) differs from Rhjn- 

 chonella pleurodon, another local typical fossil, by 

 having from three to five ribs in the mesial fold 

 and sinus, and the remaining portion of the shell is 

 smooth, whilst the last-named fossil has from three 

 to seven ribs in the sinus which radiate from the 

 beak. Terebratula hastata {'iig;. 129) is frequently 

 found with its bands of colour preserved, showing 

 that the carboniferous seas in which it lived did not 

 exceed fifty fathoms in depth. Orthis resupinata 



(fig. 130) may easily be distinguished by its fine 

 striffi and two or three transverse lines of growth^ 

 Cardiomorpha olilonga (fig. 12S) belongs to the Con- 

 chifera, and is a large shell, smooth, wrinkled, and 

 with a few transverse lines. 



Another place in the neighbourhood well worthy 

 of a visit is the Winuats, or Windgates, a narrow 

 defile between lofty limestone cliffs, through which 

 the turnpike road to Manchester formerly ran. 

 Wild grandeur and stern magnificence are the 

 characteristics of this gloomy pass : on each side 

 stupendous piles of mountain limestone rise to a 

 great height, their summits split and rent into a 



Fig. 128. Cardiomorpha oblonga. 



variety of fantastic forms : in some places huge 

 buttress-like masses protrude into the road, whilst 

 in others lie shattered fragments of rock, which 

 having become detached from the mountain above, 

 have been hurled down, and are seen scattered 

 about in wild profusion ; whilst, at the lowest part 

 of the defile, a gigantic pile of rock, round which 

 the road winds, appears to oppose a barrier to all 

 further progress. ; 



Fig. 129. Terebratula hastida. Fig. 130. Orthis resitpinafa. 



Opening out from the Vale of Castleton are 

 numerous little dales of great loveliness. The 

 origin of these may be traced to denudation; the 

 action of water having, in the course of ages, swept 

 away the Yoredale shale where it occurred, leaving 

 the harder rocks which form the hills in situ. To 

 this cause the origin of most of the undulating 

 scenery of Derbyshire must be attributed ; the 

 streams that descend from the heights having first 

 undermined the softer strata and then carried them 

 away. Good examples of this action of water may 

 be seen on the lower flanks of Kinder Scout, and 

 notably at Mam Tor; and where only the lower 

 limestone beds occur, it is not doubted that water 



