THE MOORLAND DISTRICT. 37 



the district S. of the Esk, is towards the S. E. On the north side of that 

 river, the upper plane of the lias is nearly one thousand feet high in Rose- 

 bury Topping. From hence to the Lyth alum works, distant seventeen 

 miles and a half, in a direction almost due E., the dip is eight hundred 

 feet, or about forty-five feet per mile : to Rockcliff, E. N. E., twelve 

 miles, the dip is forty-six feet per mile, to Eston Nab N., four miles, 

 eighty feet per mile. Hence it may be inferred that on the north side of 

 the Esk river, the strata generally dip to the N. E. 



The above measures were taken in directions where the results are very 

 little affected by dislocations. But local variations of dip are very 

 numerous. From Huntcliff and Rockcliff, the strata sink both toward 

 the east and the west ; between Whitby and Bay Town they form a 

 basin with meeting slopes ; and in Robin Hood's Bay they turn up in 

 what is called a saddle. The most remarkable of these dislocations are 

 under the High Peak and west of Whitby. (Consult the section at all 

 these points.) The three members of the lias formation may be seen 

 on the sea-coast in juxta-position at Robin Hood's Bay, and in the high 

 cliffs of Boulby and Rockcliff. The upper and lower shales are seldom 

 so well exposed, as to admit of being studied with advantage inland ; 

 but the middle group may be examined in Eston Nab, in Eskdale, along 

 the front of the Cleveland hills, in Bilsdale, and in the neighbourhood 

 of Easingwold ; and in all these places its characteristic position in the 

 shale, and the abundance and peculiarity of its imbedded fossils, emi- 

 nently distinguish it, and strongly remind the geologist of the " marl- 

 stone" of Lincolnshire and Northamptonshire, to which it is certainly 

 to be referred. 



THE CARBONIFEROUS AND OOLITIC FORMATION. This formation 

 is found resting upon the lias in all the high hills and cliffs which belong- 

 to the moorland district. As its character is, in a considerable degree, 

 peculiar, it may be well to introduce here an epitome of its general 

 history, for the sake of comparing it with the oolitic strata of the 

 midland counties, and the carboniferous series of rocks at Brora, in 

 Sutherland. 



