SKETCH OF THE GEOLOGY OF DERBYSHIRE. 3 
it were, into an irregular, low-curved, dome-shaped mass, with 
many great cracks and fissures intersecting each other at right 
angles ; then a partial settling to have taken place, and some of the 
pieces divided by those fissures to have slipped below, while others 
were elevated above their previously common level. This will give 
a rough notion of the present broken and disjointed state of the mass, 
where, however, the fractures are clearly traceable to a common 
cause, and where the general inclination of the beds slopes on every 
side from the central position. That this is the general position of 
the beds may be seen by actual inspection. Along the western boun- 
dary some miles N. and S. of Buxton, the limestone dips everywhere 
to the W. passing regularly under the superincumbent strata. On 
tracing it towards Castleton, it first dips N.W. and about that place 
due north. Between Castleton and Bakewell the limestone has an 
easterly inclination; and the same general dip may be observed 
throughout the eastern boundary all the way to Wirksworth. The 
whole of this eastern portion, however, is very remarkable for the 
great folds or flexures exhibited by the limestone strata. Scarcely 
any portion is a perfect plane, but it is all bent into regular and al- 
ternate elevations and depressions, like mighty ridges and furrows, 
the sides of which dip respectively to the N. and S. while the whole, 
taken as a mass, dips invariably and sometimes rapidly to the east. 
Of these great corrugations, Matlock High Torr and the adjacent 
cliffs down to Cromford, expose very beautiful examples, the strata of 
each cliff, while viewed in front, dipping evidently, on either hand, 
from the summit of the hill to the bed of the river, or N. and S. re- 
spectively, while a cross section would show them to be, at the same 
time, dipping into the hill, or towards the E. at a considerable angle.* 
The remarkable curve of the boundary of the limestone between 
Winster and Youlgreave, is owing to this peculiar structure, increased 
perhaps by a positive dislocation. It is caused by a depression or 
downward curve of the limestone between these two places, the hol- 
low being filled up by the superior rocks ; the bottom of this hollow 
dipping, doubtless, to the E. while its sides incline to the N. and S. 
respectively.+ 
The dip of the beds along the southern boundary is not so regular 
* The quarries at Matlock Bridge show this very clearly. The whole hill 
of Masson Lowe, of which these beautiful cliffs are but small portions cut off 
by the gorge of the river, would exhibit the same structure ona larger scale 
could its stratification be exposed, 
+- See section No, 2. 
