490 DISCUSSION 



floral, and physical features, and an influence over utilisation, development, 

 and location of industries. The influence of the rock-types is seen in the 

 scenery, industrial value, and human occupations of any given region, but 

 for the most part the geological factors are factors in the first instance ; they 

 are modified locally in many ways to produce what may be termed the 

 factors in the second instance, which are those most relevant to the present 

 discussion. 



Nevertheless, certain direct geological influences fall to be considered 

 here. Since almost every important geological formation has given rise, 

 in different parts of the country, to its own characteristic scenery and 

 ecology, we should endeavour to secure, in the course of our planning, 

 that at least one typical area on each geological formation is reserved. In 

 some cases there is an obvious, a unique area : in others latitude in location 

 is given by the extension of the formation across Britain. Here and there 

 a National Park is desirable, but in many instances smaller reserves, such 

 as those secured by the admirable work of the National Trust, would be 

 adequate. Some areas have been, or can be, scheduled under the Town 

 and Country Planning Act of 1932. Examples of such reservations already 

 made are found in the Dovedale area in the Carboniferous Limestone, 

 the Greensand area of West Sussex, the Chalk Downland, and so on. The 

 New Forest, on the Eocene deposits, is fortunately reserved as Crown land 

 for all time. A comprehensive list of desirable areas could soon be compiled. 



It is in the areas of ancient rocks — the pre-Cambrian and older Palaeozoic 

 — that National Parks would be mainly located, for here the resistance of 

 the rock-types and variety of their arrangement and rearrangement give rise 

 to striking scenery — hence, of course, the pleasure resorts of the Scottish 

 Highlands, the Lake District and Snowdonia. And, dependent on the 

 geology, they carry a characteristic flora, and sometimes a distinctive fauna. 

 They are hard lands for man to make a living on. Mineral resources are 

 not absent, in the form of slate and building-stone industries, small metalli- 

 ferous mines (lead, copper, zinc, iron, barytes, etc.) ; but they are scattered 

 and often of no great importance. 



The Upper Palaeozoic rocks also furnish areas of great scenic beauty 

 suitable for National Parks, as for example in the Peak District. There is 

 no need, in such cases, for large-scale labelling of well-known features such* 

 as has been perpetrated at High Tor, at Matlock Bath. A speedy removal 

 of this blemish would be welcomed by the many members of the British 

 Association who have seen it. From the point of view of mineral resources, 

 Britain owes much to the Upper Palaeozoic, the Carboniferous Limestone, 

 so important as a raw material for chemical, metallurgical, agricultural 

 purposes and for its iron ore, lead, zinc, fluorspar, etc. ; also the Coal 

 Measures, of the constituent rocks of which little is wasted — coals, brick- 

 making clays, refractory materials, iron ores, building-stones, etc. In the 

 course of unplanned working of this national wealth, it may be felt that the 

 face of the land has been indelibly scarred ; yet even the Black Country is 

 a mark of the beast which can be outgrown. 



Apart from quarrying of limestones for building-stones and lime-burning, 

 and the working of clays for brick-making, and of sands for refractories, the 

 chief mineral importance of the Mesozoic rocks lies in the iron ores of 

 the Midlands, Lincolnshire and Yorkshire. The great development of 

 the industry at Corby in recent years suggests that here is an admirable 

 opportunity for enlightened planning, just as the Kent coalfield, under 

 Abercrombie's planning, has demonstrated the feasibility of developing a 

 large-scale mineral industry without the production of Black Country. 



The belt of IVIesozoic rocks, like that of the Cainozoic, is best known as 



