268 YORKSHIRE NATURALISTS’ UNION AT GRASSINGTON. 
The deposits first spoken of are known as the Clitheroe lime- 
stones, the mud being the Bowland shales; and they form a base 
for the carboniferous strata of Yorkshire and Derbyshire. Since that 
time ages have passed away; these reefs and their islets have been 
surrounded by other strata, and buried deep in the earth; but, as 
change after change has taken place, they have been again raised, 
and the mud which surrounded them has been gradually washed 
from them by weather and water, and carried down the rivers Wharfe 
and Aire. But the dome-like covering has protected the knolls, and 
they still stand out, immense monuments of one of the many curious 
ways in which the earth has been built up, the mysteries of which 
a geologist makes it his work to unravel. Three of these knolls 
were visited by the party—namely, those of Stebden, Carden, and 
Elbolton ; and in these the dip of the rocks and the different animal 
and plant remains were found in illustration of what has been said 
as to the manner in which they were formed. As the party stood on 
the sides of these immense mounds, the occurrences of much later 
periods were passed in review before them. Evidence lay there of 
the last great geological period previous to the present one, the 
evidence of which is almost universal in our Yorkshire valleys. 
In the hollows between the knolls were the mixture of clay, sand, 
and the different kinds of rocks found in the valley lying together in 
total disorder, their surface forming a hummocky, irregular outline— 
the whole being the residue brought down the valley by a glacier. 
At Elbolton the party had a view of a still later episode. They 
there descended the now famous well-like cave in which has been 
found the remains of some twelve human beings; as also those of 
bears, wild boars, wolves, and other animals now long extinct in 
Britain—the latter of which had probably fallen in by accident. 
The geological business over, the party went through the once- 
thriving but now almost deserted village of Thorpe to Grassington, 
all well pleased with the interesting and instructive day, and with 
thanks to the leader, who had so clearly explained on the spot this 
very curious formation. 
For the Conchological Section Mr. William Nelson, who was 
during the course of its proceedings elected one of its. Secretaries 
in place of Mr. John Emmet, F.L.S., whose resignation the Section 
was very sorry to receive, prepared the report, as follows :— 
Messrs. Nelson and Roebuck began operations at Cracoe on the 
wagonette stopping for rest for the horses, by searching at the foot of 
the walls, where a beautifully coloured Zimax agrestis was found, 
which Mr. Roebuck identified as var. //acina, while they also took 
Zonites nitidulus, Helix rufescens (commonly), H. rotundata, and 
Naturalist, 
