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THE YORKSHIRE NATURALISTS' UNION 

 IN UPPER TEESDALE. 



The Union had reason to congratulate itself upon the ground 

 chosen for the Bank Holiday excursion, the upper reaches of the 

 Tees valley having long been recognised as classic ground for 

 the Geologist and Botanist. The exact portion of the valley which 

 was selected for investigation was the Yorkshire or Southern bank of 

 the Tees, from Middleton to its junction with the Maize Beck. 

 No more beautiful spot could have been chosen than the upper 

 portion of the Tees valley, which Yorkshire shares with the adjacent 

 counties of Durham and Westmorland. The district is well known 

 and deservedly attractive, not only to botanists and geologists, but 

 also to all lovers of wild and picturesque scenery. The Tees fault, 

 running east and west, and having an upthrow of about eighty 

 fathoms opposite Middleton, forms the chief geological feature of 

 Upper Teesdale, and contributes largely to its characteristic scenery. 

 This fault throws up the basalt, locally known as Whin Sill, both 

 causing the formation of the waterfalls of Cauldron Snout and High 

 Force, and forming the bold escarpments of Falcon Clints on the 

 one side of the river and Cronkley and Holwick Scars on the other, 

 where vast masses of whin form a bold frontispiece at the base of 

 Mickle Fell, the highest of the Yorkshire summits, the top of the 

 western patch of gritstone, which caps it, being 2,596 ft. above the 

 sea-level. At the head of the valley stands Cross Fell in Cumberland, 

 a mountain which towers upwards near the edge of the great Pennine 

 escarpment to the height of 2,900 ft. In departure from the usual 

 custom this excursion was planned to extend over three days, that is 

 to say from Saturday, August 3rd, to Monday, August 5th. 



The excursion commenced on Saturday, the 3rd of August, on 

 the arrival of the 11-28 a.m. train at Middleton. The party 

 drove in wagonettes to Langdon Beck, a distance of about seven 

 miles. From thence, under the guidance of Mr. J. Backhouse, jun., 

 and Mr. Joseph Wearmouth, of Newbiggin, they struck the river 

 at the nearest point, and following the bank on the Durham side, 

 passed under the magnificent basalt escarpment called Falcon Clints, 

 formerly the home of the buzzard, the peregrine, and the raven, but 

 in these days tenanted but by the feeble kestrel, to Caldron Snout. 

 At this point they crossed the Tees by a light wooden bridge, which 

 looked perilously frail above the roaring waters of the fall, and found 

 themselves in Westmorland. In ten minutes, by crossing Maize 

 Beck, they arrived in Yorkshire. Here the party was joined by 



Sept. 1S89. 



