458 NOTES. 



of rocks or strata, piled up at a small angle with the horizon, though in some 

 instances, like the primitive, nearly vertical. These strata consist of sand-stone, 

 clay-slate, bituminous slate, indurated argillaceous earth, or fireclay, argillaceous 

 ironstone, and greenstone or blue whinstone. And to possess the valuable treasures 

 concealed among these rocks, we employ a vast capital in money, and tax all the 

 ability of the human mind in the science of engineering. 



To bring the subject matter of capillary attraction, as regards Artesian wells, 

 springs, mountainous marsh lands, or bogs, fairly before the reader in a very brief 

 manner, we shall avail ourselves of a vertical section of the strata in Derbyshire, 

 selecting our materials from the valuable work of Mr. Whitehurst, " On the original 

 State and Formation of the Earth." 



If the reader conceive the alluvial covering to be removed, the strata will at 

 once appear on the upper surface, as in the external contour of the country between 

 .Grange Mill and Darley Moor, in Derbyshire. Let now the numbers 1, 2, 3, 4, 

 &c. represent the strata in their vertical position, bassetting towards 8, with the 

 river Derwent running over a fissure filled with rubble in the centre. 



Then, the upper stratum, or No. 1, at Darley Moor, is Millstone Grit, a rough 

 sandstone, 120 yards deep, composed of granulated quartz and quartz pebbles, 

 without any trace of the animal or vegetable kingdoms. 



The next stratum, called No. 2, which is found on both sides the Derwent, is a 

 bed of Shale, or Shiver, 120 yards deep, being a black laminated clay, much indu- 

 rated, without either animal or vegetable impressions. It contains ironstone in 

 nodules, and the springs issuing from it are chalybeate, as that at Buxton Bridge, 

 or that at Quarndon, and another near Matlock Bridge, towards Chatsworth. 



Next in- succession we have No. 3, Limestone, 50 yards thick, productive of lead 

 ore, the ore of zinc, calamine, pyrites, spar, fluor, cauk, and chert. This stratum 

 is full of marine debris, as anomince bivalves, not known to exist in the British seas ; 

 also coralloids, entrochi or screw stones; and amphibious animals of the Saurian, 

 or lizard and crocodile tribe, some of which, in a fossil state, are of enormous size. 



Following this we have No. 4, a bed of Toadstone, 16 yards thick, but in some 

 instances varying in depth from 6 feet to 600 feet. It is a blackish substance, 

 resembling lava, very hard, with bladder holes, like the scoria of metals or Iceland 

 lava. This stratum is known by different names in different parts of Derbyshire. 

 At Matlock and Winster it is loadstone and blackstone ; at Moneyash and Tidswell 

 it is called channel} at Castleton, cat-dirt; and at Ashover, black-clay. " This 

 toadstone, channel, cat-dirt, and black-clay, is actually lava, and flowed originally 

 from a volcano, whose funnel or shaft did not approach the open air, but which 

 disgorged its contents between the adjacent strata in all directions," at a period 

 when the limestone strata and the incumbent beds of millstone-grit, shale, argilla- 



