288 YORKSHIRE NATURALISTS IN UPPER TEESDALE. 



some rare and lovely flower was sure to bloom. On the opposite side 

 of the glen rose to a great height moors covered with the purple 

 heather, and here and there a patch of the yellow Potentilla or some 

 other flower equally dear to botanists. The ravine, too, leading to 

 the fall had been planted on its sides with spruce and silver firs, and 

 pleasant and well-designed walks intersected the woods, making the 

 approach easy. As stated, the top bed at the High Force is basalt ; 

 this overlies a bed of shale, which from contact is highly indurated, 

 and when struck has quite a metallic ring ; under this again is a 

 thick bed of limestone, locally known as the 'Jew Limestone.' 

 This is very fossiliferous, being full of corals and crinoids, and is 

 very little altered, if any, by the agency of the basalt. 



Monday opened early with heavy rain, which boded ill for the 

 day's programme, as a stiff round lay before the members ; happily 

 this cleared off, and on the arrival of a fresh contingent of members 

 by the morning train, all were ready to begin. For the day's work 

 the geologists had the invaluable leadership of Major Bainbridge, 

 chief of the many mines belonging to the London Lead Company. 

 They would have had the benefit of that gentleman's guidance on 

 Saturday, but that that day happened to be the monthly pay-day of 

 the miners, who flocked into Middleton from many and distant parts 

 of Teesdale and Weardale on that important errand. The full title 

 of the Lead Company is ' The Governor and Company for Smelting 

 Lead with Pit Coal and Sea Coal,' for which purpose they were 

 incorporated by Royal Charter in the reign of Queen Anne. 

 Previous to this charcoal had been used for lead-smelting The 

 programme commenced with a visit to the ' blue granite ' (i.e., basalt) 

 quarries of Messrs. Ord and Maddison, near Middleton Railway 

 Station. The Whin Sill is here rapidly thinning out, and disappears 

 in the bed of the Lune near Longton. The basalt is extensively 

 quarried for those black ' setts ' so familiar in the thoroughfares of 

 Leeds, and of which immense stacks were ready for removal. 

 Blake's Stone-breaker was hard at work reducing the stone to chips 

 for walks and roads, and close by were wagons with the oft-seen 

 words ' Leeds Corporation ' painted thereon, and waiting for a freight. 

 Mr. Chadwick, whose physique eminently fits him for rapidly striding 

 over hill and dale, from here made a detour to the Lunedale Whin- 

 stone Company's Quarries, about a mile S.E. of the Middleton 

 Quarries. He reported that the Whin Sill there is about 15 ft. 

 thick, and is capped by about 5 ft. of blue ferruginous shale, above 

 this another band of shale about 12 ft. thick, and this again by 

 about 15 ft. of limestone full of characteristic fossils, as Productus 

 giganteus, and others. He also visited the Greengates Quarry, about 



Naturalist, 



