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VIL—Evidences of Diluvial Action, at Belsay, dc. By Wm. 
Kennett Lortvs, Esq. 
[Read May 18, 1848.] 
My object in submitting this brief notice to the members of our 
Club, is to draw their particular attention to an interesting phe- 
nomenon, exhibited in a quarry of the Carboniferous Limestone, 
in the grounds of Sir Charles Monck, at Belsay, and at a short 
distance from the new road to Otterburn. 
The quarry is worked for the purpose of procuring the stone 
for burning into lime in the adjoining kilns. On my first visit, 
some years ago, the uppermost bed, which crops out towards the 
north-east, was in working: the dip of the beds, consequently, » 
was in the opposite direction. 
On a subsequent visit, during a geological ramble in company 
with Mr. King, about three years since, I was so fortunate as to 
obtain an opportunity of seeing a surface of the stone exposed 
to view, over anextent of about half an acre, which had pre- 
viously been covered by a quantity of earth and rubbish, and 
which was now removed in order to extend the working of the 
quarry. ‘The strata then appeared to dip at an angle of nearly 
thirty degrees, and on the lowest part of the quarry, a bed of 
detritus rested, upwards of twenty feet in height. 
While collecting specimens of the few Fossils (Hncrinites and 
Trilobites) which the Limestone contains, our attention was soon 
diverted to the extraordinary appearance of the exposed surface. 
In the direction of the dip throughout, it was deeply scored and 
scratched by longitudinal, and nearly parallel, lines, of various 
width—so deeply, in fact, that, on standing at the bottom of the 
quarry, and looking upwards, we could plainly see the surface 
irregularly furrowed, in a transverse direction, which was evi- 
dently occasioned by the depth of the longitudinal grooves or 
scratches, which had acted with more or less force on different 
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