190 Correspondence — Professor J. W. Gregory. 



of this same gravel at Swartha Wood, Stocks Gate, and Askwith ; 

 at this last place, which is on the opposite side of the Wharf e, the 

 grave] is only 425 feet above the sea. These mounds have been dug 

 over," etc. The " these mounds ", old lime-kilns and burnt stones, 

 of the quotation by Professor Kendall are those at Swartha Wood, 

 Stocks Gate, and at Askwith, which is four miles north-east of 

 Lanshaw Delves. 



The interest of the Lanshaw Delves in connexion with the esker 

 question is that it was claimed as a high level esker ; if so it is 

 exceptional, and its explanation appeared difficult. I attached 

 importance to this identification as it had been accepted by A. H. 

 Green, whose work on eskers elsewhere gave weight to his opinion. 

 Professor Kendall says that when I mentioned Green I meant Russell. 

 That is not so. I referred to Green as the preface to the Memoir on 

 the Yorkshire Coalfield states that he edited the whole of it, and 

 internal evidence (e.g. the modification of the views expressed by 

 Russell in 1873) suggests that Green wrote these paragraphs in the 

 Memoir. Russell in 1873 said that the ridges includiag the Lanshaw 

 Delves seem " to be undoubted eskers " ; the text of the Memoir 

 reduces this statement to " esker-like ". According to the Preface 

 to the Geological Survey Memoir, 92 S.E., 1879, the field-work for 

 the Survey on the area including Lanshaw was done, not by Russell, 

 but by Fox-Strangways ! My impression from Russell's statements 

 was that he had probably never seen the Lanshaw Delves. I did not 

 quote the literature before 1878, as Green doubtless considered it all 

 when preparing the paragraphs in the Yorkshire Coalfield Memoir. 



The interpretation of the Lanshaw Delves as a moraine instead of 

 an esker had three preliminary difficulties. First, the angular, 

 unglaciated nature of the grit boulders. Second, the great difference 

 in form of this bank from the neighbouring drift formations. It is so 

 conspicuous that it is marked on half-inch-to-the-mile topographic 

 maps, and is so regular that it has been often claimed as an artificial 

 prehistoric earthwork. The name "Delves" appeared to support that 

 view ; accordingly before my visit I looked up the word in Wright's 

 English Dialect Dictionary, where, among other meanings, is its use in 

 West Yorkshire for to " split or rive the flag-rock ". In that sense it 

 seemed possible that the name had beeu suggested by the condition 

 of many flagstone boulders in the Delves. The term is also used, as 

 quoted by the New English Dictionary, for a sudden dip or slope of 

 a hill, or for the descent of a path. Etymology, therefore, gave no 

 definite help. I saw evidence of digging in the Delves, but nothing 

 to decide whether it was to obtain limestone boulders from under- 

 lying boulder clay or was connected with the possible use of the bank 

 as a prehistoric earthwork. Third, the absence or rarity of 

 Carboniferous Limestone was a further difference from the adjacent 

 glacial drifts. I did not say or conclude, as Professor Kendall seems 

 to have inferred, that there was no Carboniferous Limestone in the 

 Delves, for — as quoted in my paper — the Survey Memoir states 



