in Yorkshire, ^c. 259 



Wiiilby and the adjacent parts of Yorkshire; and at Shavv 



Engine mme in pariicular, near Eyam N. (where this stra* 

 turn has been penetrated 360 feet deep to come at the vein 

 of lead ore in the first limestone) alum is said to form a 

 crust on the parts of the shale exposed. T cannot however 

 consider this shale, and that at VVhitby, as belonging to the 

 same soil, but believe the latter to correspond with the 

 great or clunch Clay of Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire, Lin- 

 colnshire, &c., underlaying the Woburn Sand and fer- 

 ruginous sand-stone strata, as hinted above: which clay 

 abounds with selcnilc and pyrites, and at its exit from the 

 island on the south coast in Dorsetshire, if 1 mistake not, 

 takes fire on contact with the sea-water, as at Whitby ; and 

 whose highly bitutninous shales, towards its lower part, 

 have occasioned the useless expenditure of such immense 

 a»ums of money ni search of coals in this and past ages, in 

 all its course through the English counties. At the east end of 

 BoJinbroke town in Lincolnshire, in 1607, 1 observed these- 

 bituminous shale beds, and within a few miles, an expensive 

 boring was at that time making, in search of coal-seams, which 

 existed only in the ideas of the adventurer. Ludi Hel- 

 montii of various sizes and shapes, some long and cylindrical 

 in shape, (of which sir Joseph Banks has specimens at his 

 seatatUevesby) with thin shells investing them, which seem 

 to prove their animal origin, are found at Bolinbroke, and 

 elsewhere : Quere, — Are ludi found in the Whitby shales? 

 or large anomia gryphus, perforated, or worm-eaten as it is 

 called, near to the sand-stone ? 



Mr. Winter mentions the Whitby strata, as passing into 

 the interior of Yorkshire and into Lancashire 5 but is it not 

 more probable, that the ancient alum-works in Lancashire 

 and the western parts of Yorkshire, which he alludes to, 

 were situate on the shale of Castleton Mam Tor, above 

 mentioned ? and not on the Whitby shales ; since the 

 former contains sulphur sufficient for the production of 

 the sulphuric acid, necessary in the production of alum* 

 An alphabetical list of all the places, exactly describing 

 their situation, where alum has at any time been made in the 

 north of England*^, which perhaps Mr. Winter by the as- 

 sistance of his friends could furnish, would prove of con- 

 siderable use towards deciding the geological questions 

 above stated, as to the number and relations of the rich alu- 



• Benjamin Martin's Natural History of England, vol. li. p. 2^9, men- 

 tions alum as among the mineral products of Derbysiiire ; but I found no 

 lilrorks, Dor heard of any, in my recent cxajninsitioii of th<U county. 



R 2 minous 



