70 DESCRIPTION OF THE STRATA. 



also, in which all the waters of the vale unite, the same phenomenon 

 is observable, at and below Malton ; but there the strata on the west 

 side of the river are higher than those on the east side. 



Whether the oolite accompanies the chalk and shale in their 

 whole progress towards the south, is not known: but it is found be- 

 hind the chalk at Ketton in Northamptonshire, at Bath, and as far 

 as Portland isle. Yet the Bath stone and Portland stone appear to 

 differ from our oolite, in their being better adapted for the purposes 

 of ai-chitecture. Our oolite is chiefly useful in being burnt for lime, 

 for which purpose large quarries of it are opened all around the vale 

 of Pickering. 



The beds that immediately succeed the oolite are 



LI3IESTONE AND CALCAREOUS SANDSTONE. 



The oolite, as has been intimated, is the uppermost of a series of 

 beds, composing the hills that encircle the vale of Pickering on all 

 sides, except where it is bounded by the chalk hills. The series fol- 

 lowing the oolite cannot be very easily described; the beds being 

 numerous and diversified, and varying both in niunber, thickness, 

 and quality, in the different places where they are accessible. They 

 all agree in being more or less calcareous ; but this quality they pos- 

 sess in very different degrees; some of them being limestone, others 

 sandstone, while the greater part are of an intermediate character. 



Though scarcely any of these beds can be compared to the oolite 

 in thickness, the whole together are vastly thicker, especially in the 

 most lofty of the hills. Their extent too is considerably greater than 

 that of the oolite; for though the latter is always uppermost, where 

 the series is entire, it is often discontinued on the heights, without 

 reaching the exterior fronts of the hills. Thus, between Pickering 

 and Whitbv, the oolite is discontinued a little to the north of Lockton, 



