172 



HARDWICKE S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



Northallerton, where it attains an altitude of over 

 1300 feet above the sea ; from this point the outcrop 

 turns to the south and forms the magnificent scars 

 or inland cliffs of Boltby, Whitestone Cliff and 

 Roulston, the latter of these, with the outlier of 

 Hood Hill a little to the left of it, is the most 

 striking object seen in the landscape on looking from 

 York to the northward. From Roulston Scar the 

 outcrop turns round to the eastward, and, keeping 

 still at a considerable elevation, passes to the north 

 of Coxwold, Byland Abbey, and Oswaldkirk ; 

 between this and Gilling these measures are in- 

 terrupted by the great east and west valley faults 

 which bring in the Kimeridge Clay between these 

 places : on the southern side of the valley the great 

 escarpment formed by the lower portion of these 

 beds is, however, continued in a more or less in- 

 terrupted course from Gilling by Hovingham and 

 Castle Howard to Malton. 



The series of limestones and sandstones above the 

 Lower Calcareous Grit do not form any very marked 

 features ; they lie on the dip slope or inner edge of 

 that rock and vary considerably in composition, 

 presenting quite a different aspect in the Howardian 

 Hills to what they do in the northern range. 



The Upper Oolite, or Kimeridge Clay, occupies 

 the whole of the great valley stretching from the 

 coast at Filey to Helmsley, known as the Vale of 

 Pi9kering, it is also let in, as we have observed, 

 between the two large faults at Gilling which throw 

 the outcrop as far west 'as Coxwold, and which have 

 been the main cause of the formation of the valley 

 through which the railway between those places 

 runs. At Malton the Kimeridge Clay is again let 

 down by faults to so great a depth that deep borings 

 made near the town have failed to reach the base of 

 the formation. Beyond this the Kimeridge Clay 

 may be traced for some distance beneath the chalk 

 escarpment until, from the unconformable overlap of 

 that formation, it disappears, together with the 

 other divisions of the Oolites in the neighbourhood of 

 Acklam. The Kimeridge'Clay,' however, reappears 

 again, together with some of the Oolites below in the 

 neighbourhood of Cave, and, grossing the Humber, 

 passes into Lincolnshire. 



' The Chalk Wolds constitute a distinct range of 

 hills which form a very conspicuous feature in the 

 landscape on the east when viewed from York. 

 They are composed wholly of White Chalk, with at 

 the base a few feet of a peculiar bed known as the 

 Red Chalk ; this latter, although only': a few feet 

 thick, is very persistent in its outcrop across the 

 county ; in that part nearest to York it contains 

 large lumps of oolitic ironstones and other rocks 

 bouldered in a matrix of red chalk. The White 

 Chalk is not a very interesting formation, and does 

 not call for any particular notice, although the grace- 

 ful contour of its winding valleys has a charm not 

 possessed by any other county. 



In conclusion, let me observe that any one wishing 

 to obtain a general idea of the geological position of 

 the city of York and its surroundings cannot do 

 better than mount the central tower of its venerable 

 cathedral on a clear day, where, from this elevated 

 position, nearly 200 feet above the plain, he will see 

 on the west the range of hills comprising the Paleo- 

 zoic rocks which form the great Pennine chain, and 

 is frequently called the backbone of England ; on 

 the north the valley formed out of the softer beds of 

 the Trias and the Lias, these being surmounted by 

 the Oolites rising in the conspicuous objects of Hood 

 Hill, and Roulston Scar, and the fine wooded es- 

 carpment of Brandsby and Castle Howard ; on the 

 east the range of hills having a more rounded outline 

 which comprise the Chalk Wolds, beneath which the 

 lower range of hills formed by the Oolites may be 

 seen to disappear, and are overlapped by the uncon- 

 formity of that formation to reappear again farther to 

 the south in the low range of hills about Cave, near 

 the southern margin of the county. 



SOME SHORE-HAUNTING FISHES. 



No. HI. 



By Dr. P. Q. Keegan. 



[Continued frotn page 146.] 



THERE is a very singular fish called the angler 

 or fishing frog [Lophiiis piscatoriits), which 

 grovels in the mud and slime, or sand or shingle 

 of our coasts, and occasionally hops about after 

 the retreating tide. He is prodigiously ugly, but 

 singularly " cute." He has very " catching ways " 

 about him, and fails not to gorge his capacious maw 

 with fishy food procured in a very strategetical 

 manner. He does not spin a web like the spider, 

 nor dig a pitfall like the larva of the ant-lion, but 

 on the top of his head there are planted two or three 

 long and slender appendages, the foremost one of 

 which, lavishly furnished with sensitive nerves, 

 impends over the huge cavernous mouth, and is 

 uncommonly like a small angle with bait attached 

 used by fishermen. Its free extremity is thickened 

 out just as if it bore a bait of a shining silvery 

 brightness (in some species this portion is phos- 

 phorescent). The other end of this appendage is 

 articulated to the skin bones of the head by a very 

 free and easy sort of hook and eye joint, and affixed 

 thereto by some twenty-two muscles, so that absolute 

 freedom and suppleness of movement in every direc- 

 tion are secured. Now mark the astute procedure 

 of this " artful dodger." Grovelling in some shallow 

 part of the water near the shore, the angler 

 (chameleon-like) immediately changes the colour 

 of his skin so that it will be similar in tint or shade 

 to that of the sand, shingle, &c., which surrounds 

 him. Now, keeping as quiet as a cat before a mouse 



