NIDD. 71 



Bewerley ; and it preserves this character, with lower margins of 

 gritstone, to Ripley. Borders of magnesian limestone accompany 

 it to Knaresborough, and New Red Sandstone plains conduct it 

 to the Ouse. 



The little rill which enters the Nidd below Ripley draws part 

 of its scanty supply from the many health-giving wells of Low 

 Harrogate. These precious waters have their local origin deter- 

 mined mainly by the anticlinal axis of strata which may be 

 traced in the higher ground west of Harrogate -between the 

 millstone grit ranges of Rigton and Birks Crag, which dip in 

 opposite directions. The existence of chalybeate waters is too 

 common a circumstance to be of special interest ; but the sul- 

 phureted water of Harrogate, loaded with common salt, is an 

 indication of a deep-seated spring, rising under peculiar circum- 

 stances. The ' old well } is, in fact, a salt-spring, with traces of 

 iodine and bromine as in modern sea-water ; and possibly there 

 may be only one deep source for this water and the springs both 

 east and west of it, as far as Harley Hill, Starbeck and Bilton. 

 The differences between these springs in proportion of sulphates 

 particularly, seem to be explicable as effects due to the different 

 channels through which they reach the surface. 



The situation of Harrogate is such as to give a cool bracing 

 air in the summer and autumn, and the country around invites 

 to lengthened excursions. These have been much facilitated of 

 late years by railway communications to the north, east, south- 

 east, and south. Nidderdale, Brimham Crags, Fountains Abbey, 

 Ripon, Boroughbridge, York, and a great part of Wharfedale, 

 all full of interest, are accessible with little effort. For easy 

 walks, Harley Hill, the Haveray Beck, Almes Cliff, Plumpton, 

 and Knaresborough, may be suggested. 



The lands of Nidderdale from the sources of the river to the 

 neighbourhood of Ripley belong to parishes at some distance to 

 the east, viz. to Kirkby Malzeard and Ripon, old centres of 

 population on the course of the Ure. The lead-mines of Green- 

 how Hill, which were worked by the Romans, and probably by 



