HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



171 



Grenoside beyond, to enjoy the view from the crest 

 of the Grenoside escarpment over the rich but flatter 

 country on the east towards Rotherham. 



Though at Wharncliffe Crags we are at the abode 

 of the "Dragon of Wantley," the tale of whose 

 destruction by More of More Hall, is familiar to 

 readers of Percy's " Reliques," the geologically in- 

 structed visitor will not expect to find a magnificent 

 cavern in the sandstone at the spot where the words 

 "Dragon's Den" appear on the map. All that 

 exists is an open joint in the crag, large enough for 

 the accommodation of a serpent, but not for that of 

 an animal of any size provided with legs. The line of 

 the ballad describing the locality 



" In Yorkshire, near fair Rotherham," 

 gives us a glimpse of the relative importance of 

 Sheffield and Rotherham at the time it was written, 

 the distance of the " Dragon's Den " from Rotherham 

 being rather greater than that from Sheffield ; it is 

 the more noticeable as Sheffield was then, as now, a 

 seat of the hardware manufacture : 



" But first he went, new armour to 

 Bespeak at Sheffield town." 



No other lower coal measure rocks deserve notice in 

 a sketch like this ; it will therefore be best now to 

 proceed to consider the middle coal measures. 



A glance at the map (one inch) of the Geological 

 Survey (82 N. W.) shows the strike (that is the 

 direction of the lines of outcrop) of the middle coal 

 measures, south of Sheffield, to be from north-west 

 to south-east. But from Sheffield northward two 

 great faults, throwing clown the measures between 

 them, alter the strike of the beds so much that their 

 outcrops are at right angles to their direction imme- 

 diately south of Sheffield, viz. south-west and north- 

 east, which is also the direction of the lines of fault. 

 These two faults are known as the northerly and 

 southerly Don faults. The northerly fault ranges 

 from half to two-thirds of a mile west of the alluvium 

 of the Don. The southerly fault is, roughly speaking, 

 parallel to the northerly fault, and for some distance 

 keeps on or close to the river and its alluvial flats. 

 The Silkstone and Parkgate coals recover their former 

 line of strike about three miles north of Sheffield, but 

 some of the higher beds retain the strike induced by 

 the faults for a much greater distance. The Parkgate 

 coal lately mentioned is the first coal of any import- 

 ance met with above the Silkstone, which is about 

 300 feet below it. The Silkstone and Parkgate 

 rocks, which overlie the coals so named, form, with 

 the measures between them, the steep hillside east of 

 the Sheaf, on top of which St. John's church stands, 

 and may be traced in a south-easterly direction, 

 towards Norfolk Park and Intake. From the top of 

 this hillside, which is capped by the Parkgate rock, a 

 fine view may be had both eastward and westward. 

 From this point there is a gradual decrease, on the 

 whole, in the average height of the sandstone ridges 

 eastward, which continues till the magnesian lime- 



stone escarpment bounding the coalfield is reached. 

 The red rock of Rotherham, however, imparts a 

 more than average height to the strip of ground 

 covered by it, and forms a more or less picturesque 

 ingredient in the landscape, though it never attains 

 a height that would be thought considerable in the 

 lower coal measures. 



To reach the red rock from Sheffield it will be 

 necessary to cross the outcrops of all the more im- 

 portant coals lying above the Silkstone, among which 

 may be mentioned, in ascending order, the Swallow 

 Wood, Barnsley, and High Hazles coals, whose out- 

 crops range north-west and south-east, in the tract of 

 country between the Parkgate rock and the Rother. 



The red rock, as already mentioned, rests uncon- 

 formably on the beds below, and is distinguished also 

 from almost all other coal measure sandstones by its red 

 or reddish colour. The only other exceptions to the 

 uniformly buff, or whitish-brown tint of carboniferous 

 sandstones, are found in a rock lying above the 

 Wickersley Rock, in the neighbourhood of Brampton- 

 en-le-Morthen, and in the Wickersley sandstone in 

 Ravensfield Park. The Brampton Rock maybe seen 

 at Sawn Moors and Pickles quarries. This red colour 

 has never, I believe, been seen except, as in these 

 cases, in rocks high up in the series. 



The red rock covers a strip of country of very 

 variable width, though seldom more than a mile, 

 between Rotherham and Harthill, south of Kiveton 

 Park railway station. It is sometimes found in two 

 beds, sometimes as one mass of sandstone. In the 

 excavations made for the Rotherham water- works, 

 near Ulley, irregular bands of red and purple shales 

 were seen interstratified with it. Its total thickness 

 must vary exceedingly. Its carboniferous age is 

 shown in the cutting on the Midland railway, between 

 Masborough and Eckington, about one and a half 

 miles south of the former place. There a coal five 

 inches thick, lying on twelve feet of sandstone of the 

 ordinary coal measure type is seen resting on the 

 red rock ; while, on the other hand, near Harthill, 

 the Permian beds are seen lying unconformably above 

 it. At Whiston a coal underlies the red rock, which 

 is in all probability the Herringthorpe coal. But a 

 mile north of Whiston the red rock, in two beds, is 

 seen, judging from the dip, to underlie the Herring- 

 thorpe coal. The probable explanation of this anomaly 

 is given in the " Memoir" on the Yorkshire coalfield 

 before alluded to. The red rock may "abut under- 

 ground against the slope of a denuded hollow," about 

 Herringthorpe. At Whiston, however, " the bottom 

 of the trough is at a higher level than to the north of 

 Herringthorpe, and the red rock is above the coal." 

 At Aston the rock on which Treeton stands, and 

 which may be called the Treeton rock, abuts against 

 the red rock, having been gradually approaching it 

 between Treeton and Aston. 



The general conclusion to which we are led by the 

 above facts, and others which might be adduced, is 



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