162 Burton: The Cleveland Ironstone. 
which was perhaps the least suitable for use by early races of 
men. Implements of war and husbandry were used by the 
Britons, and as local material was used whenever it existed, it 
seems probable that many a lusty blow was dealt by bill-hooks 
of local iron wielded by the Brigantes inhabiting Cleveland. 
The crude but efficient methods they adopted would doubtless 
be applicable only to the ores of Oolitic formation, which 
are found plentifully throughout the dales; and not to the 
Lias stone. 
The local ores may or may not have been used by the more 
highly civilised Roman conquerors. It is probable that their 
greater knowledge and their better system of inland transport 
would lead them to the use of haematite ores principally, 
but that they did manufacturé iron is pretty clear from the 
fact that a few years ago a Roman bloom of that metal was 
found near Hexham. 
The Chartularies of many abbeys shew that the monks were 
mine-owners, and the chronicles prove them to have been 
Ironmasters. 
It is clear therefore, that any investigations must be into 
the whole of the iron-bearing strata, whether we regard its 
existence from an industrial and historical point of view, or 
from that of geology only. 
The local ore is found in nodules in the upper portion of 
the Lower Lias. 
In Middle Lias. 
In The Dogger. 
In the Ellerbeck bed of Goathland, Egton, Ingleby and 
Snilesworth. 
In the Grey Limestone. 
In the Upper Estuarine Series in Fylingdales, 
In the Cornbrash in Newton Dale and Ryedale, and 
In the upper part of the Kellaways rock on the moors about 
Danby... 
The various seams, however, are not continuous throughout 
the area, and seams which are continuous in section at one 
place, are in other places split up into bands with shales of 
varying thickness between, so that the problem of formation 
becomes very complicated, and is further intensified by the 
different lithological and chemical characteristics of the various 
seams, and of the same seam in different areas. Take for 
instance Eston on the north side, the main and Pecten seams 
are one; at Upleatham they are split into three with one 
band of shale; at Staithes into seven with six bands of shale. 
At Hawkser it is difficult to assign any of the seams of shale and 
Ironstone to any corresponding seams at Staithes, although 
the separating distance is only 12} miles. 
I have prepared a series of diagrams drawn to scale vertic- 
Naturalist, 
