36 THE MOORLAND DISTRICT. 



as well as in the deep hollows of Bilsdale, Bransdale, Farndale, and Rose- 

 dale, and appears to be the general base of all these elevated moorlands. 

 Its utmost thickness is not visible on the sea-coast, though in Rockcliff', 

 and on the sides of Robin Hood's Bay, nearly six hundred feet are ex- 

 posed. At the head of Bilsdale, the upper edge of the lias is eight 

 hundred feet above the plain below, and one thousand feet above the town 

 of Stokesley, which is on the same formation. In Rosebury Topping, 

 the upper edge is one thousand feet above the lower beds of it at Redcar. 

 Where the moorlands slope beneath the second hilly district, at Hamble- 

 ton, the lias descends and spreads in the low ground about Thirsk, 

 Easingwold, and Sheriff-Hutton. It crosses the Derwent at Howsham, 

 and proceeds by Leppington and Bugthorpe, till it comes to be almost 

 concealed under the chalk-hills at Garraby and Bishop Wilton. Its 

 course, however, is still continued in a narrow tract, beneath the chalk, 

 by Millington and Londesborough to Market Weighton ; after which 

 it turns out from the wolds, and proceeds by Northcliff and North 

 Cave, to the Humber at Brough ferry. Beyond this river, its range is 

 uninterrupted through Lincolnshire and the midland counties, to Bath 

 and Lyme-Regis. 



The upper edge of the lias is so distinctly marked below the car- 

 boniferous sandstones which cover it, that by means of many barometri- 

 cal observations, I am enabled to state, pretty distinctly, the average 

 amount of its declination in several directions. It appears at a greater 

 altitude along the breast of the hills south of Stokesley, than in any 

 other part with which I am acquainted. Under Wainstones cliff it was 

 found to be nearly twelve hundred feet above the sea, At Brandsby, 

 which is in a line due south, and distant nineteen miles, it is about two 

 hundred and eighty feet above the sea ; the difference of level is equiva- 

 lent to nearly fifty feet per mile. From the same point at Wainstones, 

 the lias sinks in an easterly direction to the level of the sea under the 

 High Peak, at a distance of twenty-eight miles ; this is at the rate of 

 nearly forty-three feet per mile. From the same point, the dip to the 

 top of the lias on the south side of Whitby harbour, in a direction E. 

 by N., is fifty-five feet per mile. The general declination of strata, in 



