THE EVOLUTIOX OF CLEVELAND SCENERY. 



By Rev. John Hawell, jNLA., E.G. 8. 



(^»ur appreciation of the beautj^ of scenery to a great extent 

 depends upon the range of our knowledge. For the untutored 

 savage, or the child of tender years, the beauties and glories of 

 natural scenes have comparatively little charm, and tliey are in 

 large measure lost upon many an agricultural labourer and other 

 out of doors ■worker in England, who has had the advantage of 

 going through the curriculum of an elementary school. Just at 

 present there is a current running in favour of the introduction 

 of " Nature study " into these schools, and accordingly there is 

 ground for hope that the next generation of our countrymen will 

 grow up with a more intelligent understanding of and interest in 

 what has been called the " Vesture of the Great Unseen." 



To understand the general jirocesses by which Nature operates, 

 and to be alile to read with some approach to truth and accuracy 

 the history of the various stages of evolution through which any 

 natural scene has grown into its present condition, ministers very 

 greatly to our ])leasure in contemplating it. 



Taking, therefore, the very limited district with which the 

 Cleveland Naturalists' Field Club specially concerns itself, I Avould 

 attempt briefly to indicate some of the steps l)y which it has grown 

 to be the " ]3eautiful Cleveland " which Ave know and love. It 

 Avoidd be a long story to tell ai) initio and in extenso, so that I 

 cannot here enter into many details, except as regards some of the 

 later phases. As to the earlier, I can only briefly indicate them, 

 as the ontogeny of a vertebrate summarises its phylogenj', 

 leaving out many of the earlier stages entirely, but revealing 

 others ahvays in their correct order. 



The initial difficulty, as so often hapiiens, is to know where 

 to begin. Our view into the earliest past is completely closed. 

 In order to produce scenery we must first obtain the materials of 

 which to compose it. I am no materialist, and the origin of 

 matter apart from a Creator is to me unthinkable, though we 

 may imagine, even, where we cannot jiretend to ascertain l)y 

 investigation, some of the processes through which the things 

 we see around us came to be such as we know them. We may. 



