A. O. Cameron — Peat Deposits at Kildale, etc. 351 



III. — Notes on some Peat Deposits at Kildale and West 

 Hartlepool.^ 



By Alan Grant Cameron, 



of the Geological Survey of England and Wales, Member Yorkshire Geological 



Society. 



NEAR Kildale, a small village on the ISTorth Yorkshire and 

 Cleveland Railway, not far from the source of the river Leven, 

 a railway cutting close to the station shows, in descending order, the 

 following section. 



(a) Peat 14 feet. 



^b) Sandy underclay 2 „ 



(c) Pale marly sand ... ... 15 „ 



(a) This deposit is circular in shape, being 14 feet thick in 

 greatest thickness, thinning away in all directions. It is pale brown 

 in colour, tough and leathery in structure, and appears to consist 

 chiefly of decomposed wood, stumps and roots being easily recog- 

 nized in it. Remains of Deer, Cervus elapJius (Red-deer) and Cervus 

 tarandus (Reindeer), have been found in the lower part of the peat, 

 the antlers especially being well preserved.^ 



(b) Below the peat a sandy underclay usually occurs, of variable 

 thickness, the average being about 2 feet. A thin band of bog iron- 

 ore is often at the base of this. 



(c) This deposit consists essentially of fine white sand, its yellow 

 marly appearance being due to the great abundance of Lymnea 

 percegra, mostly in a broken condition. In some parts, however, 

 this shell may be found in a capital state of preservation, accom- 

 panied by minute specimens of Pisidium amnicum f Helix nemoralis ? 

 and Acicula fusca, and fine specimens of Helix as'persa. 



The sand is sometimes cemented together by the lime in these 

 shells, and has, then, somewhat the appearance of a calcareous tufa. 

 At the base of the cutting, water still collects, issuing from the Middle 

 Glacial Sands, upon which the whole deposit rests. 



In this water Lymnea percegra still occurs in hundreds. There 

 seems little doubt that this deposit is not of any great antiquity, 

 although we have not been able to ascertain, positively, whether 

 human beings lived in this district or not before the peat formation, 

 though it seems more than possible, that this tarn or pond had some 

 connexion with the moat round the old castle, which formerly stood 

 close by, but of which not a stone now remains. 



A somewhat similar deposit to the above occurs at the Slake, 

 West Hartlepool, where recent excavations revealed the following 

 section in descending order. 



(a) Soft peat 8 feet inches. 



(b) Blue underclay ... ... 1 „ 10 ,, 



(c) Boulder-clay ... ... ... 10 ,, o » 



(a) is a soft peat, brown in colour, containing numerous trees, 



1 This paper is published by permission of the Director General of the Geological 

 Survey. 



2 Seamer Carr (once a lake), near Stokesleyin Cleveland, -when being drained, was 

 found to be a peat bog, from which numerous skulls and antlers of deer, and the 

 skeleton of a large ruminant, are said to have been dug out. A stone celt was also 

 picked up. 



