194 Mr. Hutton on the Stratiform Basalt, 



Old Water, but is not seen on Croglin or Castle Carrick Fells, as the 

 regular rise of the beds towards the west would carry it above their 

 summits. 



Near the head of Blackburn, which is afterwards called Hartley 

 Burn, and flows to the Tyne, the Whin is found in the stream for nearly 

 half a mile : this bed, which crops out to the north-west, on the high 

 ground near the top of Cold Fell Pike, must be a different bed and 

 higher in the series than that seen in Croglin Water, and the tributa- 

 ries to the Gelt. After following the descent of Blackburn for near a 

 mile, a mass of Basalt, of inconsiderable extent, appears on the north 

 bank of the stream. 



About a mile further down the burn, a stream joins it from the west, 

 up which, for nearly a quarter of a mile, the Whin may be seen, the wa- 

 ter forming a succession of cascades over it. Continuing the descent 

 of Blackburn, we arrive at Raven Crag, a little below the last men- 

 tioned spot ; here the Whin suddenly increases to an enormous thick- 

 ness, without the beds above it being in the least disturbed ; the chan- 

 nel becomes narrow and deep, and the water, after forming a series of 

 small rapids, is finally precipitated over the Whin in a fall of consider- 

 able beauty : below the force, the Basaltic columns, crowned with the 

 superior strata, rising to a great height on either side of the narrow 

 channel, add much to the romantic wildness of the spot. At the foot 

 of Blackburn, or where it forms Hartley Burn and runs to the east, a 

 remarkable change is observable in the aspect of the country. This 

 is owing to the great Stublick Dyke, which running east and west, here 

 cuts through the hills, throwing the whole formation down so far, that 

 the Coal Measures proper are found on its north or low side, below the 

 level of the Whin Sill, forming the depressed Coal fields of Hartley 

 Burn and Tindle Fell, as described by Mr. Wood.* 



* Vol. i. page 302, 



