233 



YORKSHIRE NATURALISTS AT INGLETON. 



May 12-14, 1906. 

 [Continued from page igj.) 



GEOLOGICAL NOTES. 



By Mr. Edw in Hawkesworth. 



Ever since the earliest days of geolog'ical stud}', the 

 district of Ing"leton has excited the attention of the students 

 and exponents of the science. As far back as 1802, in that 

 epoch-making- book, ' Illustrations of the Huttonian Theory,' 

 Dr. Playfair refers to sections near Ingleton, which showed a 

 bed of ' Limestone,' nearly horizontal, resting- upon almost 

 vertical beds of ' primary argillaceous schistus.' Man}- other 

 pioneers of the science, including such honoured names as 

 W. Smith, A. Sedgwick, and J. Phillips, worked at and wrote 

 of the geology of the district, and many of the most eminent 

 living geologists have devoted considerable attention to it. 

 Nevertheless it still affords a number of problems, pressing for 

 solution. 



In its broader aspects, the geology of Ingleton may be said 

 to be fairly simple. On a platform of ancient rocks, highly 

 contorted, and then exposed to enormous denudation, rests a 

 thick mass of Carboniferous deposits, showing the basement of 

 that system up to the Millstone Grit, which caps the higher 

 hills. This mass, co\ ering a large area, was in its turn 

 subjected to great denudation, leaving a series of high hills, 

 very similar in type, some of the deeper valleys between having- 

 been cut down into the older rocks. 



But, in coming to details, several complicated and difficult 

 points present themselves. The stratigraphy of the Car- 

 boniferous rocks is clear, but that of the older rocks is far from 

 being so. According to the Geological Survey, the succession 

 of these is as follows : — 



,T if^ • ^ (Tough grits and flags. 



Upper Coniston V>t j j ^ 1 ^ 



c-i • - T-i - Cleaved mudstone- or slate. 



Silurian 1* lags 1 /^ , 



\ ° \ Conglomerate. 



L'uconformity ? 



lover ] Coniston Limestone I Mudstone or strongly cleaved 



J*.. . ,- Series. j slate. Limestone and shale. 



I *' Green Slates )^ . , . . 1 ^ 



■' J r) 1 • ,, -Greenish g'rits and slates. 



and rorph}-ries. ) ** 



A considerable patch of these rocks is exposed near 

 Ingleton, running for about two miles north-east of the line of 



190C July I. 



Q 



