52 



Binney — Lower New Red Sandstones. 



Althougli only five feet of the Gritstone were exposed in the 

 quarry, the rock is of great thickness, and graduates into the Mill- 

 stones of the district, to the west of which it, in my opinion, forms 

 the uppermost portion, or what in Lancashire would be termed the 

 " Eough Eock," which it resembles so much as not to be distinguished 

 from it. From Bramham Moor to Plumpton, I did not attempt to 

 trace the range of the Sandstone ; but there is little doubt that the 

 direction given by Professor Sedgwick is the right one. 



Plumpton Section. 



The Sandstone at Plumpton is well exposed in the picturesque 

 scenery for which the place is so famed, in fact, it chiefly owes its 

 origui to this rock. The stone is here of a purplish-red colour, and 

 is composed of coarse grains of quartz with some pebbles, mixed 

 with decomposed felspar. It is generally false-bedded, and cannot 

 be less than 100 feet in thickness. Its dip is slightly to the east. 

 I did not see the rock run under the Magnesian Limestone, but it no 

 doubt does ; nor did I see it pass into the Millstone-grit of Brown 

 Edge, on the road to Knaresborough, so extensively quarried for 

 building purposes. From the dip of the Plumpton Eocks and the 

 stone in this quarry, it appears pretty clear that one rock lies on the 

 other, as follows : 



Fig. 2, 

 1. Plumpton Sanistone 



-The Plumpton Section. 



2. Carboniferous Strata, not well exposed. 

 3. Brown Edsre Sandstone. 



Section on the Nid. 



Prom Plumpton the Sandstone can be traced to the banks of the 

 Nid, where it forms a cliff of purple-coloured Sandstone, more 

 flaggy and not so coarse as that seen in Plumpton, and capped by 

 yellow Magnesian Limestone. But on passing OA^er the Nid to the 

 Knaresborough side, the rock becomes much coarser in grain ; and 

 in some parts the white quartz pebbles in it are so numerous as to 

 make it a conglomerate, specimens of them being from an inch to an 

 inch and a half in diameter. The cement is decomposed felspar, of 

 a light colour ; and the tint of the rock is more of a reddish-brown 

 than the purple colotir of that of Plumpton. No one can tell this 

 rock, as it lies in the quarry, from an ordinary Millstone-grit, 

 From twenty-five to thirty feet of stone is exposed, but nothing can 

 be seen of the bottom of the rock. Over the Sandstone is a thin bed 

 of conglomerate apparently derived from the destruction of the 

 underlying rock, which it resembles, and over it is a bed of yellow 



