126 Mr. Hopkins's Remarks on Farey's Account of the 



in which our geologist has shown such an aptitude to make 

 " the crooked straight, and the rough places plain." 



But to proceed *with Farey's imaginary bassets. The first 

 basset passes, he says, from Crossbrook Dale to Fin Copt Hill. 

 I assert in answer, that there is no continuous basset between 

 those points, nor can I find the slightest evidence of any 

 N. and S. fault which might conceal it. From Fin Copt Hill 

 it is said to range south-westerly by Flagg and Moneyash to 

 Gratton Dale near Elton ; but on what authority the assertion 

 can possibly rest, I cannot form the most remote idea. I have 

 carefully examined several parts of this range, and have made 

 most diligent inquiry respecting the basset among the most 

 intelligent miners at Moneyash, and have never been able to 

 discover the slightest evidence of its existence between Fin 

 Copt Hill and Gratton Dale. In like manner the supposed 

 second basset is said to range from Priestcl iff Lowe west of 

 Moneyash, at a short distance from the first ; but where it was 

 conceived to pass over the E. and W. range of hill between 

 Taddington and the basin in which Moneyash is situated, I 

 could never understand either from Farey's work or from 

 Mr. Conybeare's interpretation of it. I have, however, most 

 positive evidence that such is not the line which the basset 

 from Priestcliff Lowe follows, having distinctly traced it from 

 the summit of the Lowe continuously to the E. and imme- 

 diately to the S. of Taddington to the basset by Chilmerton 

 (considered by Farey as the third basset,) on the one hand, 

 and by the W. of Taddington and Blackwell on the other, 

 to the foot of the Lowe, from the summit of which I had set 

 out; thus absolutely demonstrating that the toadstone found 

 at the foot of the Lowe as we descend to the Wye belongs to 

 the same bed as that at its summit, though Farey has asserted 

 the latter to belong to the second, and the former to the third 

 bed. 



I can offer no explanation of these discrepancies on simple 

 matters of fact between Farey's statements and my own. I can 

 only hold myself responsible for the facts I have stated. 



From Gratton Dale to Masson Lowe and Matlock High 

 Tor, the bassets I have traced agree more nearly, though still 

 imperfectly as regards the second of them ; but in his account 

 of Masson Lowe he has fallen into exactly the same error as 

 at Priestcliff Lowe, and the exposition of it is effected exactly 

 in the same manner. The constitution of this curious hill, 

 however, is too intricate for me now to enter into any descrip- 

 tion of it*. 



* In my first examination of this intricate hill (which I was obliged to 

 make hastily) I conceived the toadstone at Bonsai to be the tirst. A more 



