and their Connexion with Volcanos. 59 



of Leigh Down into the Severn, as the result of some internal 

 derangement in the strata brought about by disturbing causes 

 of great antiquity. 



Every one who has been to Matlock, will have recognised the 

 great similarity between the character of the gorge, out of which 

 its tepid springs issue, and that of St Vincent's rocks near Bris- 

 tol. But the researches of geologists have shewn, that this re- 

 semblance is not merely confined to the surface, and that more 

 decisive evidence of disturbance may be collected from the struc- 

 ture of the rocks which form these precipices. Mr Whitehurst, 

 many years ago, pointed out the existence of a great fault in 

 the valley of Matlock, produced by the limestone and toadstone 

 strata being tilted up in a westerly direction to that degree, as to 

 occasion them to rise abruptly to the summit of Masson Low*. 

 This elevation was productive of a fracture in the above rocks, 

 near the place where the river Derwent now flows, the upper 

 bed of limestone on the western side of the valley being brought 

 down below the second bed on the east, and the first bed of 

 toadstone on the one side being parallel to the second bed on 

 the other. The connexion of this tepid spring with the cause 

 of this dislocation will be further corroborated, if we may be 

 permitted to give credence to the observations made subsequent- 

 ly by Mr Fareyf , who professes to have traced this same fault 

 from its commencement at Cromford, below Matlock, into Staf- 

 fordshire, and from thence northwards as far as Buxton, where 

 it was particularly examined during the building of the Crescent, 

 and was found to pass through the spot from whence the ther- 

 mal water isssue. 



But if Mr Farey is to be believed, these are not the only 

 warm springs that occur near this fault, for the latter, accord- 

 ing to his statement, stretches from Buxton in a north-westerly 

 direction to the village of North Bradwell, where is another 

 spring having the temperature of 58°, and appears to terminate 

 at Litton near Tideswell, about a mile from Stoney Middleton, 

 where there is a third spring which raises the thermometer in 

 the coldest weather to 64°. 



* See Whitehurst's Theory of the Earth, Plate 2. 



t See Farey 's Derbyshire, vol. i. on the great limestone vault ; and his 

 map of the county, in which the line of faults is traced. 



