YORKSHIRE NATURALISTS IN MID-RIBBLESDALE. It 
an interesting flexure of the limestone beds, relieved by an overthrust, 
forming a reversed fault. 
The party next visited Sawley Abbey, which was pointed out by 
the leader as an ancient example of jerry-building, the walls being 
formed of calcareous shale, which has undergone rapid disintegration, 
instead of the solid limestone of the neighbourhood being used. 
The party then crossed the Ribble, and made their way over 
the alluvial flat to Bolton Park, where they were shown over 
the conservatories by the kind permission of Mr. C. B 
Wright. 
From Bolton Mr. Tiddeman struck back to the Ribble, 
and for some distance the party made their way along the high, 
wooded bank of the river gorge. When an opportunity was 
afforded them a descent was made to the river-side, and a rough 
scramble along a very primitive and rocky path by the water’s edge 
ensued. The Ribble between Gisburn and Sawley has excavated 
a gorge through the Carboniferous Limestone beds, which are the 
lowest beds seen in the district. As the river runs almost along the 
strike of the beds very little variation in the geology was seen, and 
these lower beds did not yield any fossils on the present occasion. 
A return to the upper regions and a rapid walk across country to 
Gisburn Station completed the afternoon’s ramble. 
During the day Mr. Tiddeman explained the structure of 
the district, which was pleasantly undulating, with the huge 
hump of Pendle Hill rising high to the south-east. The strata 
of this district are thrown into a series of folds running 
from south-west to north-east, the central anticline (Clitheroe 
anticline) running past Skipton to Bolton Abbey. The Clitheroe 
Limestone beds of the Carboniferous Limestone series form 
the centre of this anticline. Above this more massive rock 
come shales with limestone bands, which often thin out in each 
direction, and are reef-like in character. ‘Then comes a more 
massive bed, the Pendleside Limestone, above which, separated 
by shales, is the Pendleside Grit. Higher still is a series of thick 
shales, the Bowland Shales, which are the equivalent of the Yoredale 
beds of the northern Yorkshire dales. The steep western slope of 
Pendle Hill is due to the rapid disintegration of these comparatively 
soft beds. The summit of the hill is formed of the massive 
Pendle Grit, the basement bed of the Millstone Grit Series, to the 
eastward of which come the Kinder Grit, the Third Grits, and 
the Rough Rock, separated from each other by shales, and over- 
laid by the coal measures of the Burnley Coal Field.—LronarD 
HAWKESWORTH. 
Jan. 1894. 
