Yorkshive Naturalists at Settle. 331 



seen, by change of dip of the beds. An interesting find near Turnerford 

 was a boulder of ' Brockram ' forming one of the stepping stones across 

 the stream. It had all the characteristic features of the Lower Brockram 

 of the Vale of Kden as exposed at Stenkrith, near Kirkby Stephen, about 

 thirty miles to the north, and different from the Brockram of Mason Gill, 

 near Ingleton, about ten miles to the north-west. This is the first time 

 Brockram has been recorded here as far as the writer is aware, and no other 

 trace of such a rock was seen in the three and a half miles of stream ex- 

 plored. Higher up stream, the shales were replaced by strong grit which, 

 while giving interesting scenic effects in the way of cascades, was relatively 

 iniinteresting. 



The writer did not accompany the party on their visit to Moughton 

 Fell to examine the peat which is here found growing in a depression in 

 the limestone, but he had made an examination of it a month previously 

 and is of the opinion that this seeming anomaly of a siliceous vegetation 

 on a limestone area may be explained in the following way. As showm on 

 another page the material upon which the peat is growing is non-calcareous 

 and consists of sandy material which is highly ferruginous, and of such a 

 nature that it could not have resulted from the solution of the pure Great 

 Scar Limestone. Some of it may have been formed by the breaking up 

 of the impure limestones and sandstones of the Yoredales, but the bulk of 

 it must have certainly been derived from grit and sandstone. Patches of 

 gravelly ice-borne drift occur plentifully in the neighbourhood and offer 

 the solution to the problem. The depression or swallow hole was in 

 existence in pre-glacial times and the melt-water from the ice carried into 

 it detrital material, and this was subjected to a settling process, with 

 many disturbances no doubt. The joints of the limestone acted like a 

 sieve and allowed the finest material (which only differs from the larger in 

 grade, being true rock flour) to pass into them and finally seal them up. 

 This fine material, now hardened, is to be found in the cervices of the lime- 

 stone round the steep scars of iNIoughton Fell in proximity to the peat. 

 This sealing up would finally give rise to a pool in the depression, and this 

 received further additions until the supply ceased. If any calcareous 

 material was originally present, as doubtless it was, it has since been 

 leached out. It seems that the analogy between the pool here postulated 

 and the pools at the gravel pits into which the washings are conducted is 

 complete. Three was no trace of lamination as is the case wdth the clay 

 derived from ice-melt water seen so beautifully in Victoria Cave, but the 

 penetrating rootlets of the vegetation would have destroyed this if it 

 was ever present. 



Victoria Cave w'as visited during the excursion and the party thus had 

 an opportunity of examining the thick deposit of laminated clay preserved 

 there, which the writer has described elsewhere and of which a short ac- 

 count was there given. Mr. Wroot added much to the pleasure of the visit 

 to the cave by his interesting lecturette upon its history and the results of 

 the exploration carried on during the years 1867- 18 70, under the auspices 

 of the British Association for the Advancement of Science. 



Botany. — Dr. W. G. Smith writes : — Plant ecology was a prominent 

 feature in the series of excursions arranged by the Yorkshire Naturalists' 

 Union, but other aspects of botany were not neglected. No better 

 programme could have been devised to show some of the many features 

 of Yorkshire vegetation, because each district visited was familiar ground 

 to the respective leaders, botanical and geological. The first day (Aug. 2nd) 

 from Huddersfield to Saddleworth by Wessenden was an excellent epitome 

 of the vegetation of the Grits and Shales of the Pennine w-atershed. Dr. 

 Woodhead, on this area, which he has worked so thoroughly from every 

 aspect bearing on plant life, demonstrated the succession from valley 

 woods of Oak and Birch upwards to the Bracken and heath}^ slopes, and 

 on to the Cotton Sedge moors so typical of the Pennines. The general 

 impression left is a series of sombre types of vegetation, somewhat lacking 



