100 DESCRIPTION OF THE STRATA. 



of ironstone. In some places, as in Harwood Dale, and Newton 

 Dale, particularly the latter, the sandstone beds are very numerous. 

 Among these we find a very hard siliceous bed, approaching to the 

 state of quartz rock. It has obtained the name of crow-stone; and, 

 owing to its durability, is the material of which several of our ancient 

 rude monuments, consisting of upright unsculptured stones, have been 

 made.* It is whitish, or greyish white; is vei-y compact and fine 

 grained ; its recent fracture shews more of a crystalline aspect than 

 any other siliceovis sandstone in the district; and the edges of its 

 splintery fragments are translucent. This kind of stone is not of very 

 general occurrence in these strata : it seems to be most abundant in the 

 upper part of Harwood Dale, where a ledge of this hard rock may be 

 seen projecting over the less durable materials, in the upper part of 

 the cliffs. By its superior durability, it is detected in a similar posi- 

 tion, in some parts of Newton Dale, to the north of Newton. 



A very thick bed of hard siliceous sandstone, but of a coarser 

 description, may be seen above the limestone, in the summits of some 

 of the lofty hills of this range, fronting the plain of Cleveland. This 

 bed may be seen to most advantage on the brow of a hill at the head 

 of Bilsdale, looking down upon Broughton and Ingleby. Here the 

 bed, for a considerable space, is divested of the alluvial covering, and 

 being split by vertical fissures into vast blocks, often rectangular, 

 presents a singular assemblage of massy pillars, like the ruins of some 

 fabric of Cyclopean masonry. Its resemblance to a work of art was 

 much greater .some years ago, when one of these square blocks, lying 

 horizontally on the tops of other two, into which position it had acci- 

 dentally fallen at some distant period, exhibited the appearance of an 

 arch or door- way. These rocks have been called the Wain-stones; 



* See an account of some of these stones, in the History of Whithy and the Vicinit)'^ II. 

 p. 664, 665, 666. 



