506 J. W. Davis— The Valley of the Calder, 



number of rounded stones. Such a section was exposed in 

 digging for the foundation of the railway arch which crosses the 

 river at North Dean. The upper part of the section was found to 

 consist of sand and stones or boulders which had evidently been 

 derived from the sandstones of the surrounding country. The lower 

 part, however, about twelve feet in depth, contained, besides stones 

 of local origin, others which had been conveyed from very long 

 distances. 



In many places along the sides of the valley, at Hebden Bridge, 

 Mytholm, Elland, and at Kirklees Park, there are deposited beds 

 of water- worn stones and sand. Take the section at the Elland 

 Cemetery for example. There is a considerable thickness of sand, 

 containing immense numbers of rounded stones and occasional bits 

 of shale. It rests on shale belonging to the Lower Coal-measures, 

 and reaches from the Cemetery down the hill-side towards the river, 

 and is cut through and well exposed by the railway at Elland 

 Station, This bed is altogether different from the one in the bottom 

 of the valley at North Dean, and they do not present the appearance 

 of baving been at any time connected with each other. 



This deposit is just such a one as would be left by the tapping or 

 draining of a lake, and it appears a reasonable inference that at one 

 time the valley of the Calder was dammed up to the height of these 

 deposits, and that by some means the barrier or embankment at its 

 south-eastern extremity was removed and the water subsided, leaving 

 evidences of its existence, which may formerly have been much more 

 extensive tban at present, in the terraces of rounded stones and sand 

 formerly constituting its shore, and which we now find at consider- 

 able elevations above the present level of the valley. Whether these 

 terraces are older than the boulder beds in the bottom of the valley, 

 must remain an open question. I do not think there is sufficient 

 evidence to solve it at present. 



The peculiar feature about the deposits exposed at North Dean, 

 and many other places lower down the valley, is the occurrence, in 

 the lower jDart, of blocks of granite and S3'enite amongst stones de- 

 rived from tbe Millstone-grits which bound the valley. How came 

 they there? The nearest points where they are found in situ is 

 either Cumberland or Wales, and consequently they must have 

 travelled or been carried to their present locality from either one or 

 the other of these localities. It appears most probable that they 

 came from Cumberland, for we know that a great glacier descended 

 along the western slope of the Pennine Chain from the Lake-district 

 and Scotland, and also that a considerable branch passed over Stain- 

 moor into Wensleydale, and found its way into the great flat country 

 of central Yorkshire, of which the city of York is the centre. You 

 may ask how this is known, and what proofs there are ? In reply, 

 there is a mountain on the borders of the Lake-district called Shap- 

 fell, which is composed of a peculiar kind of granite containing very 

 large crystals of felspar. This peculiar granite is not found else- 

 where, and its occurrence in other localities, in detached and rounded 

 fragments, proves that it has been conveyed by some means from 



