1824.] the Rocks of Mount Sorrel, #&7 3 



aspect, being often highly cultivated, even to near the summits 

 of the hills, as in the instance of the south-western side of 

 Beacon Hill, while the lower parts, in some few instances, are 

 well wooded, and even some of the loftier summits are crowned 

 with woods, as is the case with those termed the Outwoods, 

 NW of Beacon Hill, and the hill in which are situated those 

 slate quarries near Swithland, which are the most distant from 

 that place on the SE, and Bardon Hill to its very summit. 

 Everywhere, however, except where the eminences are crowned 

 by bare rocks, a herbage forms the surface, covering a more or 

 less deep alluvium of fawn-coloured, or reddish and loose earth, 

 as was frequently manifested by the labours of the mole, even 

 on some of the most elevated ridges ; and that this alluvium is 

 at least occasionally of considerable depth, is proved on the side 

 of Whittle Hill, in which are situated many little quarries of five 

 to fifteen feet deep, wrought in search of fragments and loose 

 pieces of that peculiar variety of the rock of the forest, so greatly 

 used in different parts of the kingdom for setting penknives, 

 and which is termed the Charnwood or Charley Forest hone. 



This very slight sketch of the external characters of this tract, 

 will evince that the opportunities of judging of the nature of its 

 rocks is far more limited than could be wished, but suffices at 

 least to furnish such information as may serve, if not to deter- 

 mine, at least to afford some probable notion of the relative seras 

 o which they belong, even though some points must necessarily 

 oe left undecided. 



These difficulties are, first, that having found it impossible to 

 discover the actual connexion of any two of the three rocks 

 constituting this tract, and which differ greatly in aspect and 

 composition, we are deprived of any direct means of ascer- 

 taining their relative periods of formation ; and, secondly, 

 that neither the one nor the other is seen reposing upon any 

 other rock which, in that case, might be assumed to be anterior, 

 and might therefore serve, in some degree, perhaps, to assist in 

 deciding their relative age. It is indeed true that we are justi- 

 fied in considering them older than the surrounding new red 

 sandstone, since its beds actually repose upon these rocks, 

 which pass away gradually beneath them. This circumstance, 

 which is visible in a quarry at the eastern end of the cliffs 

 above the town of Mount Sorrel, and to a still greater extent at 

 both extremes of an old and deserted slate quarry near Swith- 

 land, would seem to prove, that in the section annexed by the 

 llev. W. D. Conybeare to the " OuLliues of the Geology of 

 England and Wales," the rocks of Charnwood would have been 

 represented with somewhat greater accuracy, if instead of deli- 

 neating; the beds of the new red sandstone as abutting- against 

 them, their extremes had been shown reposing on them, and 

 the rocks of this district passing gradually, but at a considerable 

 angle, beneath them. As represented in that section, the rocks 



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