CiRC. No. 82. 



Physical Geography and Geology. 



Rev. E. Maule Cole, M.A., F.G.S., writes : — The winding gorge 

 of the Derwent at Kirkham, with its well-wooded slopes and banks 

 carpeted with wild flowers, forms a fitting setting to the gem of the 

 ruined Abbey which stood in beautiful, but dignified, seclusion till 

 modern requirements utilized the valley carved out by the river and 

 sent a railway through the midst of this charming scenery. Certainly 

 those old monks had an eye for the picturesque. The Abbey itself 

 stands on the Upper Lias which is exposed by denudation as far as 

 Castle Howard Station. Immediately above, the Dogger forms a 

 sort of terrace. This bed, the lowest of the Inferior Oolites, is fer- 

 ruginous, and at Kirkham has been worked for iron ore, but the 

 workings have been abandoned as not sufificiently remunerative. 

 From Kirkham to Burythorpe the surface of the country is occupied 

 by estuarine sandstones of the Lower Oolites, with intercalated beds 

 of limestone, Millepore and Scarborough, which may be seen in the 

 quarries at Westow. The whole district is much faulted and pre- 

 sented great difficulty to the geological surveyors. In the midst is 

 thrust up a triangular mass of Kellaways Rock, the base of the Middle 

 Oolites. On approaching the edge of the Chalk Wolds these rocks 

 are again met with : the Lower Calcareous Grit, resting on Oxford 

 Clay, forming the usual Nabs which are such a distinctive feature of 

 the Tabular Hills (one in particular, called Mount Ferrand, was 

 selected as the site of a castle, built by the Fossards, no traces of 

 which, however, now remain). Above the Lower Calcareous Grit 

 the remaining beds of the Middle Oolites, Coralline Oolite, Coral 

 Rag, etc., are absent, the slopes of the Wolds from Leavening, along 

 Birdsall Brow, and eastwards, consisting of Kimmeridge Clay, the base 

 of the Upper Oolites. Ascending the Wold a band of Red Chalk is 

 next reached, the base of the Upper Cretaceous Rocks, the Lower 

 Cretaceous being absent except for a thin band (six inches) of yellow 

 sand with numerous small rounded pebbles which is supposed to 

 represent the Neocomian beds. Some thirty feet of Chalk Marl and 

 Grey Chalk succeed, after which the White Chalk with flints (Middle 

 Chalk) is met with, which constitutes the surface of all the high 

 ground of the Wolds on the northern and western escarpments. 



At the north-west corner of the Wolds, overhanging Leavening 

 and Acklam, on a clear day, one of the finest views in all Yorkshire 

 may be obtained. To the right may be seen the Scarborough race- 

 course and the range of Tabular Hills running thence past Pickering 

 and Helmsley to the Hambleton Hills, with the Howardians spread 

 out in front. In the Vale of York Creyke stands out prominently on 

 its conical hill and a little to the left the hills beyond Ripon; more 

 to the left Harrogate and the hills behind it. Then, in the centre, 

 the great Minster at York, towering far above the ancient Roman 

 capital of Britain; behind it Rombalds Moor near Leeds; more to the 

 left again, Brayton Barff", Selby Abbey, Howden Tower, Heming- 



