Machintosh—Brimham Rocks. ep 
wardly operating agency, but a cause determined in a particular 
direction, and which must frequently have assailed the lower part of 
rocks after the upper had risen beyond its reach. All these and 
other proofs of marine, in opposition to meteoric, denudation are 
strikingly presented by the Brimham Rocks in the West Riding of 
Yorkshire,—the forms of which most observers have hitherto attri- 
buted to weathering, or the hands of man. They are situated about 
9 miles from Harrogate and Ripon, 5 from Ripley, and 2 from the 
Dacre Banks Station. The most interesting way of reaching them 
is to go by railway to Ripley, and then walk along the Old Pateley 
Road. On gaining the summit of the first eminence, the rocks pre- 
sent a very imposing appearance, as they rise up with the sky for a 
background, and are very liable to be mistaken for an irregular 
clump of trees on the top of the hill. On approaching nearer, what 
appeared as one of the trees is seen to be a huge pillar of rock, with 
a projection on the left side. On viewing them from a small knoll 
on the right-hand side of the road, and about three-quarters of a mile 
distant, the geologist familiar to sea-coast scenery at once looks 
upon them as the north-western part of an island which has been 
partly wrecked by the sea at a former period. A smaller assemblage 
of ruins may be seen ramifying from the eastern coast of the island ; 
but these are little visited. 
The Brimham Rocks (Millstone-grit) are of the same nature, and 
many of them of the same form, as those described by Mr. Hull in 
the ‘ Quarterly Geological Journal’ (August 1864), as occurring in 
the Peak District of Derbyshire in ‘ groups or multitudinous assem- 
blages.’ The table-shape and anvil-shape are common in both 
localities. Mr. Hull justly calls them ‘sea-shore rocks, and they are 
due to the same cause, namely, ‘old marine denudation’ (p. 253). 
Absence of Traces of Human Agency.—Ordinary observers are 
very liable to err in attributing to man what is chiefly or solely 
due to nature. Many of the cromlechs, and most of the rock-basins, 
and rocking-stones, referred to human workmanship, exhibit the 
clearest traces of the undermining action of water. It is possible, if 
not probable, that Druids, or pre-historic Fins, or other races, may 
have used the Brimham Rocks as a temple, and may have increased 
the resemblance which some of these rocks bear to parts of the 
human form and other objects. But the evidence that they have 
been materially altered by human hands is to be sought for in vain. 
It has been asserted that the marks of tools have been seen on the 
pedestal of the Idol Rock. Ihave not detected them; but, allowing 
their existence, it would not follow that the general or sea-worn 
form of this rock was the result of art. 
Table-, Mushroom-, and Anvil-shaped Rocks.—Many of the 
Brimham Rocks approximate more or less to these forms. They are 
largest at the top, and rest on a comparatively slender basis. In 
these rocks the undermining action of the sea is most strikingly 
apparent. Some of them look as if the billows had only left 
them yesterday. The furrows and ridges run along the planes of 
