122 Mr, Bukewell’s Reply to Mr. Farey 
Kidd in his Mineralogy, the strata on each side of the fault. 
may be supposed to resemble a house, of which one halt of 
the foundations have sunk down, anc brought the garrets 
on that side to the same level with the ground floor. 
Mr. Farey has gravely asserted that such a fault extends 
in the direction I have stated, and he has in various ways 
introduced it to the public as a discovery made during his 
survey of Derbyshire. The question at issue between Mr. 
Farey and the public, is of considerable importance as a 
subject of natural history, and as. forming an important 
feature in the geology of England ; for it must be remem- 
bered that Mr. F. has not offered this great fault to the 
public as a conjecture, but described it as an existing fact, 
in a work published by the authority of the Board of Agri- 
culture. If arent of such vast magnitude exist in our island, 
if the strata have been thrown up on one side, or depressed 
on the other, many hundred yards along a line of more 
than 100 miles, the proofs of this great convulsion must 
be too clear to admit of any doubt; at least we might ex- 
pect that these proofs could be discerned by others as well 
as by Mr. Farey, if they had any existence beyond the li- 
mits of his own mind. Mr. Farey, who has written so 
much and so seriously respecting the ‘* great Derbyshire 
fault,’ who has traced its course with such minuteness in 
his Map of Derbyshire, cannot require more than twelve 
months to answer the queries in your Magazine of July 
1812—** Where can this ‘great fault’ be scen zz situ im 
any part of its course from Nottingham to Ashburn? 
What is the breadth of the great fault? Is it merely aslip 
of the strata, or is it a dyke filled with mineral matter ? 
If the latter, what substances is it filled with ?”’ 
These are plain questions; and if the “great fault” have 
any real existence, the answers may be compressed in a 
single page. I think Mr. Farey owes to the public, to the 
Board of Agriculture, and to himself, such an answer. 
There ts no necessity for many words, or much extraneous 
discussion, which can only serve to conceal the subject from 
our view. If Mr. Farey cannot give such an answer, he 
will of course candidly acknowledge that he has been too 
hasty in his conclusions. I believe this will be found the 
easiest and the safest mode of reply*. From the examina- 
tion of that part of England which I have again made, so 
*® This is the more necessary, as I perceive that the Rev. Mr. Townsend, 
in a work entitled The Character of Moses vindicated as an Historian, has 
actually described the great fault, on the authority of Mr, Farey, as some~ 
thing really existing, : 
ar 
