Mr. Hutton on the Stratiform Basalt. 191 



above Cauldron Snout, also, the Whin was sunk through in following 

 the vein for Lead ore, of which it contained a rib 12 to 14 inches wide. 

 It was here found 3 fathoms below the surface, and was 1 1 fathoms 

 thick. At Birkdale Lead Mine, by the side of Maize Beck (a consider- 

 able stream, which joins the Tees near Cauldron Snout), two shafts 

 were sunk into the Whin in search of a Lead ore vein, which was found 

 3 feet wide, having in it sometimes a rib of ore 1 foot thick. Maize 

 Beck, for the greater part of its course, runs upon the surface of the 

 Whin Sill, and, in the higher part, as we approach the edge of the fells, 

 that bed is laid bare by denudation for a great extent of surface. The 

 Whin occurs in the lower part of Lunedale : it is also found at Lune 

 Head, but is not known any further to the south ;* we therefore change 

 the direction hitherto followed, and now proceed to trace its outcrop on 

 the fells, and in the water courses descending towards the west. 



In a small stream, called Swindle Beck, about 1 mile south of the 

 Helton or Murton mines, in Westmorland, we first observed the edge of 

 the Whin Sill, where it does not appear to be more than 1 fathom thick. 



In the Murton Fell mines the veins cut the Whin, and sometimes bear 

 Lead ore, in a rib three feet wide, much mixed with Vein-stuff, or Rider 

 as the miners term it. The entrance to the mine, and the machinery 

 for dressing the ore, are in a very picturesque situation, being placed at 

 a considerable elevation against the side of a very steep precipitous 

 valley.t Traverse roads are cut on the side of the gill, to allow the 



* On Warcop Fell, a Dyke occurs which runs nearly east and west, and which may be 

 traced by the eye upon the surface, cutting Long Fell and Roman Fell. On the top of the 

 hill, at Tarn Gill Head, a small patch of Whin maybe seen either in or near this Dyke. 



\ There is a peculiarity worthy of notice in the valleys of this part of the escarpment, 

 viz., those through which the streams run which pass the villages of Helton and Murton, 

 that called Hycup Nick, and Rundle Beck ; they are all narrow and deep slits, as it were, 

 into the edge of the escarpment, having, in some cases (as at Hycup Nick), perpendicular 

 cliffs of unbroken rock round their summits, whilst their sides are so steep as to make it 

 generally impossible to cross them, except at their higher or lower ends. Their great 

 singularity is the insignificance of the stream which runs through them, in some places 

 little more than a rill ; nor could this ever have been greater since the rising of the range 

 of Cross Fell, as the drainage waters, following the dip of the strata, run even from their 



VOL. II. y y 



