THE J)fin*t?^ALIST. 



Vr, 



GEOLOGICAL EXCURSION. 



BY E. W. 



If your Geological readers will look at any Geological map of England, 

 they will notice a large patch of colour (generally blue,) on the borders 

 of Yorkshire, Lancashire, Westmoreland, and Durham; its shape is an 

 irregular square, indented on the east side by numerous promontories, 

 coloured differently, and on the west side by one long one. This district 

 is the great mountain limestone tract of Yorkshire, the rocks of which 

 form the beds and sides of the upper valleys of all the great rivers which 

 unite in the Ouse, (except one or two feeders of the Aire, which rise in 

 the South Yorkshire coal field, and the Derwent, the sources of which 

 are found among the Oolites of Egton Moor,) and the rivers which water 

 the northern half of Lancashire — the Ribble, the Lune, the Hodder, and 

 others. The great promontory on the west, running so far into the lime- 

 stone, is formed of the upper Silurian beds, which, penetrating from West- 

 moreland by Kirby Lonsdale and Ingleton, form a largo square patch 

 between Ingleton and Settle, indicating the line of the Craven fault, 

 underlying a greater part of the limestones of Craven, and forming the 

 base of the highest hills in Yorkshire. The promontories penetrating into 

 the mass of the mountain limestone on its eastern side are the millstone 

 grit beds, which everywhere form the tops of the fells which bound the 

 deep valleys, and cap the highest summits. 



On this district we made this summer a short excursion; a few particu- 

 lars of which may prove interesting, if only the mention of its peculiar 

 beauties might induce others to visit a part of Yorkshire not much trodden 

 except by those who know and visit it as being one of the best localities 

 in England for studying great Geological phenomena. 



It would be useless to give any detailed sketch of the geology or natural 

 history of the country we traversed, because it may be found in local 

 guides, but more especially in ^Thillips' Geology of Yorkshire," our guide 

 throughout our ramble, (for such it was,) undertaken more for recreation 

 than with any scientific object; though no one could pass through such a 



VOL. VI. B 



