CiRC. 131. 



(Camb. Phil. Trans., 1824, ii., 174) ; and Discovery of Silurian Beds in Teesdale 

 (Q.J. G.S. Lend., 1877, pp. 27—34). 



PERMISSION to visit their properties has been kindly granted by Lord 

 Strathmore, Monsignor Witham, and Mr. T. Hutchinson. 



THE DISTRICT for investigation is the picturesque valley of the Balder 

 and the gorge through which it flows. Three miles above Cotherstone it is occupied 

 by the reservoirs of the Stockton and Middlesbrough Water Board. 



SATURDAY'S PROGRAMME.— Members arriving early will find much 

 to interest them at Middleton-in-Teesdale. 



On Saturday Evening Mr. W. Herdman, F.G.S., will read a few notes on the 

 Geology of Upper Teesdale, including the Whin Dykes. 



MONDAY'S ROUTES.— 



I. — The general body of naturalists will leave Cotherstone station upon the 

 arrival of the 11-19 a.m. train, and investigate the Balder valley as far up as con- 

 venient in the time at their disposal, under the leadership of Mr. J. G. Brass and 

 Mr. Ridley. 



2. — The Geological party will be led both on Saturday and on Monday by 

 Mr. W. Herdman, F.G.S., of Newbiggin. Mr. W. Y. Veitch also hopes to accom- 

 pany the party. 



GEOLOGY. — The Geological section will be officially represented by its 

 President, Mr. Wm. Home, F.G.S. 



Mr. W. Y. Veitch, of Middlesbrough, writes : — Near Mickleton in Teesdale we 

 come upon the beginning of the disturbance produced by the intrusion of the great 

 Whin Sill of Upper Teesdale, making its appearance in varying masses and at different 

 horizons from under the Lower Carboniferous rocks, fashioning the scenery up the Tees 

 valley, giving us such beautiful examples as Cronkley Scar, High Force, and Cauldron 

 Snout, and embracing Mickle Fell. Exposures of its basalt rocks and dykes are 

 observable on the right side as we pass up Lunesdale. On the same side are to be 

 seen sections of the Lower Carboniferous series from Scar Limestone to the Main 

 Limestone, and it is in this neighbourhood that the Yoredale Rocks reach their 

 highest point in Great Britain. 



The South or Kelton Fell side of the Lune is occupied with the Millstone 

 Grit series. 



There is also on the north side of the valley a fault, several miles long, which 

 runs parallel to and a short distance from the Lune. The other dales in the district, 

 generally speaking, have the strata upon their opposite sides corresponding, and are 

 evidently carved by ordinary erosion. 



The more common fossils found in the quarries are Producta, Spirifer, Terebra- 

 tula and Lithostrotion. 



BOTANY.— The Botanical section will be officially represented by one 

 of its Secretaries, Mr. John Farrah, F.L.S. The Bryologists will be represented by 

 Mr. M. B. Slater, F.L.S., and Mr. R. Barnes. 



Mr. F. A. Lees writes that his recollections of Balderdale date back twenty 

 years, when, with ' Baker ' in hand, he pilgrimaged from Middleton-Teesdale 

 where he was resident, to the habitation of Saxifraga Hirailns and the country of 

 Rokeby, fairy Thorsgill, and the dale of Balder the beautiful, made classic for the 

 botanist as well as the antiquarian not less by Gilbert Baker than Walter Scott. 

 We cannot emphasise too strongly or too often the elementary proposition that upon 

 the rock-character and sculpture of any river valley and hill-ridge its 'flora' depends 

 —that is the plants that find its aspects as to shelter and its relative moisture of soil 

 agreeable and not inimical to their well-being. This being so, when it is said that 

 in Balderdale the porous not-absorbent rocks of the Millstone Grit series form the 

 mass of surface and overlie the claggier limestone shales of the Yoredale so supremely 

 that these are only visible in a few places in the bed of the stream, it follows that 

 the flora of the district is not one of great variety, but of a sylvan uniformity that 

 however lovely in the scenic sense, with its fairy 13iiches, its opulent Rowans cream- 

 ing over with bloom, and its Heckberries {Prtiniis Padiis) tasselled with flower- 

 falls like miniatures of the silver rills of its hillsides in spate, offers no great attraction 

 to the collector who would tot up as many different species as there are minutes in 

 h-s eight-hours' day. Yet, as Mr. T. Chipchase, Mr. Hy. Waud, Mr. D. L. Smith, 



