UN 



YORKSHIRE. 



YORKSHIRE. 



1196 



Th* Dwbury railway join* the Lancashire and Yorkshire 



t. The Midland line enters Yorkshire a little south-east 

 of Slwfficld, and proceeds by way of Nonuanton and Leeds to Bradford 

 and Skiptoo, bnviug one or two short branches within the county. 



5. LamauJtvt and 1'oriairt This railway affords remarkable 

 accommodation to the clothing district of the West Riding. The original 

 Manchester and Leads line entered the county at Todmorden, and 

 proceeded nearly east till it joined the Midland at Normanton ; but 

 mat additions bare since been made to it within this county. Three 

 branches spring out northward from the main line to accommodate 

 Halifax, Bradford, Bowling, Low Moor, and Heckuiondwike ; another 

 extends south to Uudderafield and Holmfirth ; another prolongs the 

 original line east to Pontefnct and Qoole ; and there are several others 

 of minor iiuportinoa. 



4. ttmdutttr and SkeffeUL This railway passes through \ orkslure 

 from the Woodhead tunnel, through Penistone and Sheffield to the 

 Nottinghamshire boundary of the county ; there ia a branch from 

 Penistone to Huddrnfield. 



6. Ormt Northern. Thu company's railway was originally intended 

 to extend to the city of York ; but other companies have offered faci- 

 lities which have stop|>ed it short of that limit The railway enters 

 Yorkshire between Bawtry and Doncaster, and soon afterwards links 

 iUelf to several other lines within the county. 



6. York and North Mulland.Tbin company occupies a wide area 

 in the south east part of the county. The original line extended from 

 Normanton to York ; but there have since been constructed branches 

 from York to Scarborough, from Pickering to Whitby, from Leeds to 

 Hull and Selby, from York to Market Weighton, from Selby to Market 

 Weighton, from Hull to Beverley ami Scarborough, from Church 

 Feuton to Harrogate, from York to Knaresborough, and a few small 

 connecting lints with the railways of other companies, all within this 

 county. 



7. 1'ori, Nevcatile, and Berwick. The main line of this company 

 puses through Yorkshire from York to the Tees near Darlington, 

 with branches in Yorkshire to Boroughbridge, to Bedale, to Richmond, 

 and to one or two other places. 



8. Stockton and Darlington. A small portion of this company's 

 railway extends along the Tees-mouth shore of Yorkshire, from 

 Middlesborough to Redcar; partly for passenger traffic, but much 

 more largely for coals. 



9. Leeds Kortlum. This railway extends from Leeds through Harro- 

 gate and Itipon to tho Tees at Stockton, with a branch from Itipon to 

 Thirst 



10. North-Wettern. This railway (which is often called the 'Little' 

 North- Western, to distinguish it from the greater undertaking known 

 by the same name) extends from Skipton north-west to the neigh- 

 bourhood of Ingleton, and then south-west to Lancaster, thereby com- 

 pleting a line of railway communication from Hull on the east coaat 

 to Lancaster on the west. 



These railways, from the nature of the country which they traverse, 

 have necessitated the construction of works of extraordinary magni- 

 tude and cost. Some of the longest and most difficult tunnels in the 

 country, and very expensive and heavy cuttings and embankments, as 

 well as viaducts and bridges, have called into exercise some of the 

 greatest effort* of engineering skill and constructive ingenuity. 



Owing to the abundant railway communication provided between 

 Hull aod Liverpool, the traffic of Yorkshire has remarkably increased. 

 Good* from the Baltic and goods for Ireland or for America c:m be 

 forwarded to Liverpool, and goods for Germany can be forwarded 

 to Hull, with a facility which has made the south of Yorkshire a 

 great highway of traffic. 



Geology. In this great county, which stretches from the easteru to 

 nearly the western coast of England, a great proportion of the strati- 

 fied rocks of the British series may be advantageously observed : the 

 exhibitions of igneous rocks and mineral veins are of an interesting 

 character ; the superficial deposits are extensive and remarkable ; the 

 cries of ancient organic life is extremely large. Tho leading physical 

 features of the county are very obviously dependent on its geological 

 structure, and tho modifications to which they are subject by the 

 action of the sea and modern atmospheric agencies are various and 

 instructive. 



If through the city of York a line be drawn to the north-north-west 

 and south-south-east, it will pass along the centre of a wide continuous 

 Tale, rarely elevatrd more than 100 feet above the sea. Were the 

 general level of the land altered by a depression quite within the limits 

 of well-known instances, this vale would be a sea-channel, bordered 

 by the cliff* of an i land on the east, and more slowly rising lands on 

 the west. The district on the west rises to assume a mountainous 

 character along nearly all the western border of Yorkshire ; the eastern 

 region i somewhat mountainous in its northern portion, and in the 

 southern rises into a curved range of hills, ' the Wolds,' between the 

 flat district of Holderness and the valo of Pickering. 



The elevated western district is based on Palteozic rocks ; the central 

 rale and the larger part of the eastern districts are formed on the 

 Mcsozoic strata ; while in Holderness and in other limited tracts are 

 tertiary and diluvial deposits which may be referred to the Cainozoic 

 p'T.o.1. 



In the condensed descriptions which follow, the deposits are ranged 

 in the order of their relative position in the earth. 

 CAINOZOIC DEPOSITS. 

 AUurial. 



Silt Lands. The great rivers of Yorkshire which concentrate in tho 

 Humber, flow in all their lower parts through vast breadths of fine 

 sediments, left by the rivers or inundations of the sea, and a great 

 portion of this surface ia still below the level of spring tides, and 

 only defended from floods by banks. In the valley of the Aire, at 

 Ferrybridge, hazel-branches partly petrified, and nuts with the kernels 

 changed to calcareous stone, were found in considerable numbers. 

 ('Phil. Mag.,' 1828.) 



Peat or Turf Moon, at no higher level than the silt lands just noted, 

 occupy extensive areas (Thome Waste and Uatfiuld Chace), and in 

 some situations deposits of like nature occur under 20 or more feet of 

 silt. Trees in considerable abundance He in these deposits, and havo 

 been stated to show traces of the axe and marks of fire. (De la 

 Pryme, in 'Phil. Trans.') In such peat, on Thome Wa--to, i-kel- tons 

 of the fallow deer occur, and in one remarkable case the bones were 

 found to have lost their earthy phosphates and carbonates, and by the 

 action of sulphuric acid to have been subsequently converted to 

 leather by the action of tannin on the remaining gelatine. (' Reports 

 of the British Association,' 1831.) 



Shelly Marls. Under the peaty tracts of Holderness, which arc of 

 remarkably small extent, lie marls often filled with lacustrine shells ; 

 and amongst them rarely the remains of the Irish elk (Gervui giganteiu) 

 have been found. 



Raised Beaches. 



The shelly gravels and sands of some tracts near Ridgmout, in 

 Holderuess, may possibly deserve this name, but it is more certainly 

 applicable to some shelly sand-beds on the cliffs near Filey, from 

 which saveral marine shells of existing species have been extracted. 

 DUuvial Deposit!. 



Accumulations of local gravel are common in the valleys of most 

 parts of Yorkshire, but over great breadths of the district of Holder- 

 ness, in some of the oolitic and chalk hills, and iu many of the valleys 

 in these formations over great part of the area of the central Vale 

 of York in the elevated country between the Swale and the Tees, 

 and in a very few situations in the vulley of the Calder, occur abund- 

 ance of stones of various sizes, and qualities, which have been drifted 

 from great distances, even from beyond the limits of the county, espe- 

 cially from the north or north-west. Of these stones some are of a 

 size to arrest attention, and of such a peculiar nature as to be easily 

 referred to the original situation from which they were drifted. Such 

 iu particular are the 'erratic blocks' of porphyritic granite, which 

 lie near the surface in many situations in the northern and eastern 

 parts of Yorkshire, on areaa which converge to the north-west, and 

 finally terminate in the porphyritic granite fells of Simp, in West- 

 morland. From that point they were certainly removed across ridges 

 of hills, and great breadths and valleys, as far as Flamborough Head 

 and Scarborough ; but whether by forca of water when the land was 

 at a lower level or was rising out of the sea, or by icebergs floating on 

 water, or by glaciers moving across the laud, or by a combination of 

 these, is perhaps still a problem for discussion. A considerable pro- 

 portion of small drifted stones lies iu a great body of clay which is 

 not stratified, and incloses stones of all sizes, without any arrange- 

 ment of size, gravity, or mineral quality. Bones of the elephant, 

 hippopotamus, horse, ox, &c., occur in these gravelly and argillaceous 

 deposits, but not frequently, except in valleys where the materials 

 may have been displaced and subjected to fluviatile action. (Vale of 

 York ; Middleton, On the Wolds, &c.) 



Ossiferous Deposits. At Hessle Cliff, flinty gravel, stratified under 

 diluvial clay, contains elephantoid and other remains ; at Beilbeeka, 

 near Market Wei,-hton, marls which have some drifted gravel below 

 and other gravel above, contain bones of the elephant, rhinoceros, 

 felis, urns, and many other animals, with 13 species of land ami fresh- 

 water shells of existing species. Few of the numerous caverns in 

 Yorkshire, which occur in the great limestone districts of the North 

 Riding, have been explored for bones. The Cave of Kirkdale has been 

 rendered famous by Dr. Buckland's descriptions ('Reliquios Dilu- 

 vianse '), which enumerates more than 20 vertebrated animals among 

 the reliquice. 



Tertiary. 



On the sea-coast, immediately north of Bridlington Quay, green and 

 ferruginous sands enter into the composition of the cliff, and, under 

 favourable conditions of the tide, have been explored with success, 

 and have yielded a considerable number of shells of tertiary date, 

 perhaps of the age of the crag of Suffolk, in which some of the species 

 certainly occur. 



MESOZOIC STRATA. 



Cretaceous System. 



Chalk (500 feet thick). It constitutes the Wold Hills. This is 

 usually a harder rock than that of the south of England, and the 

 nodular flints which it contains are scattered through a great part of 

 its thickness. The \pwer part assumes in places a grayer and softer 

 aspect. Fossils occur in the upper part, especially sponges, marsu- 



