31 ) 



CHAPTER II. 



Series of Yorkshire strata. Geological description of the eastern part 



of the county. 



JL ORKSHIRE is one of the few counties of England, which are, for the 

 most part, defined by natural boundaries. On the west it reaches, and 

 in some places extends beyond, the great summit ridge of the island ; it 

 has the Tees as its natural limit on the north, the Dun for a great length 

 on the south, and on the east is washed by the German ocean. Its 

 area is divided into several obvious sections, distinguished alike by topo- 

 graphical features and geological structure. Along the middle of the 

 county, from north to south, runs a wide level vale, filled with gravel, 

 deposited on the upper red sandstone. From beneath, rises towards the 

 west an elevated undulated tract, of carboniferous and calcareous rocks, 

 which ascend to the summits of Micklefell, Ingleborough, and Pendle 

 Hill; whilst above, on the east, appear the uniform ranges of the chalk 

 and oolite. The hilly western tract is grouped in two portions : the dis- 

 trict south of the A ire, in which, generally, sandstones and shales with 

 coal abound ; and the more elevated region north of that river, whose 

 romantic dales are sunk into the mountain limestone, and whose hills 

 are capped by the lower members of the coal series. 



The eastern part of Yorkshire may be topographically considered in 

 five divisions. Three of these are conspicuous from their elevation ; viz. 

 the open round-fronted wolds of chalk in the south, the flat-topped 

 ranges of oolite in the middle, and the more mountainous groups of 

 shale, sandstone, limestone, and coal, which form the northern moor- 

 lands ; two are wide, level tracts : viz. the vale of Pickering, which 

 separates the chalk wolds from the oolitic hills, and Holderness, which 



