A HISTORY OF DURHAM 



shire plain and the foot of the Cleveland hills (which hills Prof P. F. 

 Kendall has well shown were by no means altogether covered by the ice 

 sheets). It is also clear that another great glacier sheet came from 

 Westmorland along the pass of Stainmore (by Brough-under-Stainmore), 

 and followed roughly the trend of the Tees till it blended with the first- 

 named flow. It was this sheet from the west that brought down all the 

 huge blocks of unmistakable Shap Fell granite which are found all 

 along its course, by Barnard Castle, Darlington and thence to the coast 

 south of Tees from Redcar to Scarborough and Seamer. Thirdly, 

 smaller glacier-sheets pushed their way from the small highland nunatdkf 

 in the Pennine west down the valley of the Wear and down many of the 

 smaller burn-dales between Derwent and Tees. These glaciers all carried 

 material to the greater sheet into which they fell on reaching the eastern 

 lower country, but this material was entirely of local origin, none as in 

 the case of the other and larger glaciers foreigners from great dis- 

 tances. Beyond this Captain Dwerryhouse has taught us by means of 

 Prof. P. Kendall's new and valuable criteria that as there were lakes held 

 up by the ice in the Glacial period among the Tabular hills in east 

 Yorkshire, so there were similar small lakes on the confines of Durham 

 at the same time in the highest ground free from ice to the west. 



RAISED BEACHES, CAVE-EARTH, OLD PEAT DEPOSITS, ETC. 



All newer than the Glacial Drift, but not always easy to place 

 correctly as to relative age among themselves, these accumulations now 

 claim attention. 



Dr. Woolacott's researches have largely extended our knowledge of 

 the Durham raised beaches. Some of these occur at a height of 150 

 feet above present sea-level. It has been already mentioned that the 

 pre-Glacial valley of the Wear ran into the Tyne Valley at 150 feet be- 

 low the river — i.e. below sea-level nearly, as the Tyne is there tidal. We 

 thus obtain an index to the probable maximum amount of vertical 

 movement to which north-east Durham, at any rate, was subjected in 

 Glacial and post-Glacial times. The land must have sunk at least 300 

 feet below the level at which it stood when the Team Wash began to 

 be filled in. This is obvious enough, but much careful gathering of ob- 

 servations, now actively going on, by competent men, requires to be 

 done before the details of the old history can with any confidence be 

 completed. At Cleadon, Marsdcn, Fulwell, Hendon and several other 

 places the raised beaches can be well seen and studied. It is worth 

 noting that besides common beach shells of living species, many chalk 

 flints have in recent years been found in these raiseil shore gravels. 



There arc not many cave-deposits in Durham, though the Magnesian 

 Limestone is so riddled with caverns. There are a few however, among 

 which those at Heathery Burn near Stanhope take the first place. The 

 cave here (now destroyed) was in the Carboniferous Limestone, and in 1861 

 was found to contain remains of the otter, badger, goat, roebuck, hog, 



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