TRANSACTIONS OF SECTION C. 655 



as well as lor a belt of American coast some 200 miles broad, this cyclic sea-salt 

 forms fully OU per cent, of what is carried to the seas by the rivers. Professor 

 .Toly, in his estimate of the age of the earth, only allows 10 per cent. 



A. study of the phenomenon is also of importance in attempts to apportion the 

 causes of the saltness of inland lakes and salt hills, which may be due to : (1) salt 

 transported from a contemporary soa, or (2) salt derived from solvent denudation, 

 or (3) to varying degrees of these two influences, lleasons are given for regarding 

 the saltness of the Bead Sea as being largely due to the first cause, and of the 

 Caspian to the second. 



12. Notes on the Occurrence of Phosphatic Nodules and Phosphate-bearinr/ 

 Bock in the Upper Carboniferous Limestone ( Yorcdale) Series of the 

 West Riding of Yorkshire and Westmorland Border. By 3 oil's Rhodes, 

 of the Geological Survey. 



By kind permission of the British Association Committee on Carboniferous 

 Zones I am enabled to announce tlie discovery of phosphatic nodules and of a rock 

 having a phosphatic matrix in the Yoredalc rocks of the following localities : — 



Phosphatic Nodules. Far Cote Gill, East Slope of Swarth Fell, Westmorland. 



These nodules occur along with ironstone septaria in blue shales which rest on 

 the top silicious beds of the Underset Limestone. 



The nodules are confined to the lower 5 feet of the shales, and are more 

 numerous in the lower half than in the upper half. 



In same gill, and resting on the chert of the Little Limestone, there is a layer, 

 .'J inches in thickness, containing phosphatic nodules embedded in a tine clayey 

 matrix. It is sprinkled tliroughoat with glauconite grains and angular chips of 

 quartz, and is overlaid by ironstone shales. 



At the same horizon as above, but 2j miles to the S.E., there occurs in a gill 

 that runs from Lambfold Crags to Lunds Church, 2 miles W. of N. of Ilawes 

 Junction, a layer of rock, 3 inches in thickness, with a phosphatic matrix 

 throughout. This layer, which has a crust of brown iron ore, is rich, in glauconite 

 and quartz grains, and also contains fragments of conodonts, &c. 



Phosphatic Nodules- Goodham Gill, East Slope of Swarth Fell, 2 miles N. W. 

 of Ilawes Junction, Yorkshire. 



The phosphatic nodules at this locality occur throughout a limestone which 

 varies in thickness from 3 to inches. This layer is underlaid and overlaid by 

 shale in more or less rotten condition. 



The horizon is doubtful, but it appears to be about 170 feet over the Little 

 Limestone. 



From the upper surface of the top bed of the Crow Limestone, Cartmere Gill, 

 EastBaugh Fell, Grisdale, 21 miles W.N.W. of Hawes Junction, I have obtained 

 a solitary example of a phospliatic nodule. 



The phosphatic nodules and phosphatic matrix examined show sponge spicules, 

 but these are for the most part fragmentary : some are of crypto-crystalline silica, 

 some replaced by calcite, whilst the axial canals are often filled with the same 

 phosphatic material as the matrix. 



The spicules are referred to hexactinellid and to monactinellid sponges. 



I am very much indebted to Dr. G. J. Hinde for notes on the sponge remains, 

 and also to Dr. W. Pollard for testing the phosphates. 



