GEOLOGY 13 



extensive remains of the shrine of St. WiUiam, also now in the museum, 

 are unsurpassed. No more ornamental stone is available anywhere near 

 York. Purbeck ' marble ' has been much used in the Minster ; the effigy 

 of Archbishop de Gray (c. 1255) in the south transept is one of the finest 

 examples of the use of this material in the country. More accessible was 

 the alabaster of the Chellaston district of Derbyshire. Apparently some 

 of the mineral was brought by water down the Trent and up the Ouse, 

 and a York school of alabaster carving arose in the fifteenth century. 

 Water-carriage was probably used by the Romans to bring stone from 

 Tadcaster, but the writer has learnt that the trip down the Wharfe can 

 to-day be somewhat arduous, even for a small boat. No particular source 

 can be assigned for the gritstone used before the Norman Conquest, but 

 in more recent times Rough Rock from the Scotgate quarries near 

 Huddersfield has been used in the Castle. 



Some of the above notes are as much archaeological as geological . Perhaps 

 we may close with an appeal to archaeologists. Between Boston Spa and 

 Newton Kyme the Wharfe is crossed by a Roman road ; the exact site of 

 the ford can be located with some precision, but even when the river is low 

 the water there is something like 20 feet deep, while an easy fording can 

 be made on a bed of gravel 200 yards up-stream. In other words, the 

 river Wharfe has cut back this shallow about 200 yards in, say, 1,700 years. 

 It would be of interest to geologists and to geographers if archaeologists 

 would collect similar figures in as many localities as possible. 



III. 



THE CLIMATE OF YORK 



BY 



E. G. BILHAM, B.Sc, D.I.C. 



The following account of the climate of York is based on observations 

 made by the Yorkshire Philosophical Society at a station among the ruins 

 of St. Mary's Abbey, in the grounds of the Yorkshire Museum, 56 ft. 

 above mean sea-level. The Society acquired the site in 1827, and the 

 meteorological observations date back to 1832. In 1871 the station 

 became a ' telegraphic reporting station ' of the Meteorological Office, 

 and the records preserved in the Office go back to that date. In 1899 

 the station reverted to the status of a ' normal climatological station '—that 

 is to say, a complete set of readings was taken twice daily, at Qh. and 21 h. 

 G.M.T. It has maintained that status to the present day. 



In 1 88 1 a sunshine recorder of the new Campbell-Stokes type was set 



