314 Transactions. 



developed. They have here a strike of N. 60° E. and dip 45° to the 

 north-west in the lower part, and a strike of N 70° E., and dip 56° to 

 the north-north-west at the junction of the Ouse and Nidd. 



McKay describes the Wharf Gorge beds as follows : " The higher beds 

 {i.e., higher than the Wharf beds] are thick bedded sandstones of a grey 

 colour, light-grey or yellow when weathered, parted by thinner beds of 

 black slaty shale." 



The Cover Creek mudstones are black micaceous mudstones with 

 numerous small irregular calcareous concretions which are more generally 

 fossiliferous than those of other divisions of the Clarentian. Belemnites 

 and occasionally specimens of Inoceramus are also found embedded 

 directly in the mudstones without being surrounded by concretions. 

 There are a few occasional beds of sandstone. The beds below the 

 house at Coverham strike N. 60° E., with dip 55° to the north-west. 

 A little farther up the Cover Creek the strike turns more to the north. 

 The beds cross the lower Nidd and are exposed in the lower Swale, where 

 they have the same characters but are less fossiliferous. The best 

 locality for fossils lies in Cover Creek, about 200 yards above the old 

 sheep-dip. Here were obtained the ammonite Turrilites circumtaeniatus, 

 Belemnites swperstes, Inoceramus concentricus, the carapace of a crab, a small 

 compound coral, the skeleton of a fish, numerous fish-scales, and specimens 

 of fossil wood. McKay's description of the Cover Creek and higher beds 

 is as follows : " These beds [the Wharf Gorge sandstones] are followed 

 by softer, more argillaceous or marly strata, until reaching a bed of 

 sandstone, which yields the fossils of the black grit, and thus the sequence 

 of the Amuri series is here somewhat arbitrarily brought to a close. . . . 

 The black grit ... as a calcareous sandstone contains ammonites, 

 Liocerarmis, fish-scales, and numerous leaves of a plant common enough 

 in the underlying Buller series. ... At Coverham, from the horizon 

 of the black grit to the flint-beds underlying the Amuri limestone, there 

 is an enormous development of black micaceous clay-marls, divided into 

 two parts by a band of grey or brown sandstones containing plant- 

 remains. These beds are crowded with calcareous concretions, and, 

 especially in the higher beds, contain Inoceramus in great numbers." 



Unfortunately the collections preserved by McKay from Coverham were 

 disappointingly small and poor, and the ammonite mentioned above was 

 not amongst them. There is a little uncertainty which is the bed he 

 called the black grit, but it is probably a sandstone in the Cover Creek 

 beds opposite the house, which lies 50-100 ft. below the horizon where 

 Turrilites circumtaeniatus was obtained, and which can be traced into the 

 Nidd. 



The Nidd sandstones and mudstones cross the Nidd obliquely above 

 the junction of Sawpit Gully with a strike of N. 60° E. and a dip of 55° 

 to the north-north-west, and they cross Sawpit Gully near the bottom. 

 They consist of sandstones with a greenish tinge, 1 ft. to 2 ft. in thickness, 

 separated by 6 ft. to 20 ft. of mudstones. Both sandstones and mudstones 

 contain in abundance a large Inoceramus. They are followed, up the 

 Nidd, by sandy mudstones which become flinty above, and contract the 

 valley to a gorge. The mudstones contain a considerable amount of 

 pyrites and exhibit a yellow efflorescence. The flint-beds seem to widen 

 in outcrop to the east in the ridge between the Nidd and the upper Cover, 

 where they form a prominent strike ridge. A little to the south there is 

 a parallel strike ridge, apparently formed by the lower sandstones. The 



