CiRC, 143. 



SATURDAY EVENING. — It is hoped that members staying the week-end 

 will assemble on Saturday evening, at the Sun Inn, Dent, and it is hoped to 

 arrange for exhibits of local specimens, and the discussion of information bearing 

 upon the natural history of the dale. 



MONDAY'S ROUTE.— Mr. Wm. Robinson and Mr. J. Davidson 

 will lead a party of naturalists for the investigation of Hell's Cauldron, Whern- 

 side, and Deepdale ; members arriving by the 8-22 a.m. train from the south, and 

 those already on the spot, will start at once from the station. Members arriving by 

 the 12-34 p.m. train will be met at station by Rev. R. Pickering, and take 

 a short cut by Ewegales Bridge to join the main l)ody. 



Geologists arriving at 8-22 a.m. will be conducted or directed by Mr. W. 

 Robinson. 



CONVEYANCES may be had for the journey between Dent Station and 

 Dent, or vice-versa, if ordered of Mr. Parrington, • George and Dragon Inn,' 

 Dent. The Secretary undertakes no responsibility whatever in the matter. 



PERMISSION to visit their lands is granted by Miss Sedgwick, Mr. R. 

 Burra, Mr. C. E. Taylor, Mr. T. Powley, and other owners and occupiers. 



In addition to those named in other parts of this circular, Mr. C. E. Taylor, of 

 A.kay, Capt. Hicks, of West House, Rev. J. H. Mackie, M.A., F.G.S., of Sedbergh, 

 and other local residents are taking interest in the Union's visit. 



THE DISTRICT.— Mr. W. Robinson writes that Dent Dale is the most 

 southern of a cluster of three drainage valleys, alike as regards their origin, situated 

 in the extreme north-west of Yorkshire, and wedged in, as it were, into the neigh- 

 bouring county of Westmorland, through which the drainage waters flow to More- 

 cambe Bay. It is cut off from the rest of the County of which it forms a part, by 

 rough and mountainous passes, much used in the earlier days of the century, when 

 fell or pack-saddle ponies were the accepted methods of travelling in districts 

 remote from the great trunk highways, but now grass-grown and comparatively 

 unfrequented. It is a noticeable feature in the landscape that the centre of Dent 

 Dale is several times broader than the outlet — a widening out initiated, probably, 

 by the scouring action of ice on the south-west slopes of Risell caused by the thrust 

 of the Deepdale Glacier, and continued since by the more rapid disintegration of the 

 softer rocks along the eastern line of the Great Fault. This ' Fault ' is greatly 

 responsible, moreover, for the division of the valley into two entirely divergent 

 classes of landscape, each dependent on the character of the surrounding rocks and 

 each picturesque and beautiful in its own way ; and, when it is mentioned that the 

 whole is surrounded and enclosed by lofty hills, as varied as is the climate east and 

 west of the Fault, it will readily be understood that Dent Dale may become as 

 interesting to the naturalist as it has been hitherto to the comparative few who know 

 and appreciate its worth. 



GEOLOGY. — The late Rev. Adam Sedgwick wrote : All the mountains of 

 Dent, to the east of Helm's Knot and Colm Scar, are composed of nearly horizontal 

 beds of limestone, sandstone and flagstone, and of dark shale, here and there 

 showing traces of coal ; and the whole series is surmounted by a coarse gritstone 

 called the Millstone Grit. The limestone beds are arranged in six groups, of which 

 the lowest, called the Great Scar Limestone, is several times thicker than all the 

 other groups put together. The top of it is seen just above the village of Flinter- 

 gill, and its upper beds are finely exposed in the river course at Kirthwaite. Its 

 lower beds are nowhere seen in our valley, but they are grandly exposed in 

 Chapel-le-dale, where they rest upon the greenish slate rocks. All the limestone 

 groups of Dent are separated by thick masses of sandstone, flagstone and shale, and 

 as the top of the Great Scar Limestone is only seen near the river course, the other 

 five groups are to be looked for on the mountain sides. The lowest of the five con- 

 tains the black marble beds, and under the highest of the five (sometimes called the 

 Upper Scar Limestone) is the only bed of coal that has been worked in Dent for 

 domestic use. The Upper Scar Limestone is surmounted by a bed of shale, which 

 is capped by the lower beds of the great group called Millstone Grit. This part of 

 the Millstone Grit forms the flat top of the hill called Crag, and the top also of 

 Ingleborough, and over this grit (at Great Colm, Whernside, etc.) is a shale with 

 beds of coal that is too poor (in the hills of Dent) for domestic use, but which might, 

 I think, be profitably employed in burning lime (Life of Sedgwick, vol. I, p. 17). 



Mr. Hugh Richardson, M.A., adds that Helm Gill has the additional interest 

 of a mica trap dyke exposed in the bed of stream some 50 yards before it leaves 

 the moorland and enters the wooded valley. As in oiher limestone districts there 



