214 A POPULAR SKETCH OF THE 



ed, too frequently faithless and ungrateful : that their private mo- 

 rality was dubious and questionable at the best, and their public 

 policy treacherous and unscrupulous : that their religion was only 

 a tissue of superstition : and all this dark picture of their vices only 

 relieved by that stern and heroic fortitude which, in their perverted 

 view of the matter, was entitled virtue. The picture drawn by the 

 Lady of the Lake of her Highland admirer, Roderick Dhu, may 

 serve for the " National Character of the Romans" : — 



" Wildly whilst their virtues gleam. 

 They make their passions darker seem 

 And flash across their spirit high, 

 Like lightnings o'er the midnight sky !" 



A POPULAR SKETCH OF THE GEOLOGY OF 

 DERBYSHIRE. 



By J. B. Jukes, B.A. F.G.S. 



Should a geological reader cast his eye upon this title, I entreat 

 him to pause, while 1 tell him that he will meet in this sketch with 

 nothing he does not already know, since I have only been able, 

 during this wintery spring, to snatch occasionally a few days of 

 geological weather, in which to acquire just so much knowledge of 

 the country as should enable me to understand what others may 

 have written or said upon the subject. As, however, my object in 

 these papers is not the putting forth original observations, but 

 solely the popular explanation of what is already known, this hasty 

 examination of Derbyshire will be sufficient, I hope, for my pur- 

 pose. I address myself, then, to the reader who has not made geo- 

 logy his particular study : and in order to make myself intelligible 

 to him, I shall not scruple to put down what may be a thrice told 

 tale to the experienced geologist. 



The county of Derby, in its southern parts, is blended with that 

 of Leicester, and the geology of the two is so intimately connected 

 that an account of the one necessarily involves much of that of the 

 other. If we draw a line from Ashbourn to Derby, and continue 

 it thence to Nottingham, we shall have marked out a very import- 



