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CiRC. 104. 



Mr. W. Lower Carter, M.A., F.G.S., writes that Kirkby Moorside is situated 

 in the midst of some of the most characteristic scenery of tlie famous Vale of 

 }Mckering, which is a roughly oval area ahnost entirely covered with alluvial deposits 

 and post-glacial sands and gravels. This oval is elongated in an east and west 

 direction, and is bounded on the north, west, and south-west by Oolitic hills, and 

 on the south-east by the Chalk Wolds. The remarkable course of the Derwcnt 

 —which, rising near the coast, flows westward instead of taking the valleys to the 

 east— is a well-known instance of erratic river flow, and jxMnts to an extension of 

 high land much further to the eastward in the early period of the formation of this 

 vale. The whole of the drainage of this oval area is carried away by the Derwent 

 through the gorge at Malton, and in the opinion of many observers th^s basm was 

 once a lake or great seadoch. 



On either side of Kirkby Moorside a long sinuous valley runs northwards 

 cutting deep grooves into the table-like hills and exposing interesting sections of the 

 Middle and Lower Oolitic beds, whicli dip gently to the south and are exposed m 

 order as w-e pass northwards. The Lower Oolites, which in this area consist of a 

 gaeat series of estuarine, marine, and freshwater beds, divided into three series,^ 

 ''each of which is capped by a thin but well-marked band full of marine fossils 

 (Fox-Slrangways), are exposed at the northern extremities of these valleys, but m 

 their lower'i-eaches the beds seen are conlined to the Middle Oolites. It is to these 

 that the attention of the geological section will be principally directed. Immediately 

 above the dark shales of the Cornbrash (the topmost bed of the Lower Oolites) 

 comes the Kellaways rock, which in this area is a ' thick-bedded soft sandstone, 

 usually rather ferru<;inous.' 'In its upper portion ihere is a red calcareous Imnd 

 from wliich most of fhe fossils are obtained, the rest of the formation being entirely 

 unfossiliferous.' This band contains several species of Ammonites and many 

 bivalves. The Oxford clay in this area is a grey sandy shale ' lithologically very 

 unlike its equivalent in the south of England.' Its fossils are few in number and 



badly preserved. 



The Lower Calcareous Grit is 'a massive, yellow, calcareous sandstone, 

 becoming more shaly towards its lower portion.' Above this come the Tassage 

 Beds with the ' Greystone,' a hard siliceous rock much false-liedded. 



The capping rock of a great part of tlie tabular hill above Kirkby is the 

 Coralline Oolite, a massive thick-bedded limestone 'composed of minute ^oobtic 

 grains with a great number of fossils.' This limestone is divided into two principal 

 beds, separated by a thin set of sandstones known as the Middle Calcareous Gnt. 

 Kirkby Moorside itself stands on tlie Upper Calcareous Grit, whilst the rising 

 ground immediately above the town to east, west, and south, is capped l.^y blue 

 kimerid.'c Clay. This clay is supposed to underly the greater part of the post- 

 glacial deposits of the Vale of Pickering, but it is only revealed in occasional patches 



in the central area. 



Tatchesof boulder clay occur in the neighbourhood of Kirkby, one ol which 



is cut through by the North Eastern Railway near Kirkby Mills. . , ■ , 



In the Coralline Oolite of this area there are many caves, one of which— the 

 Cave of Kirkdale— is celebrated by the researches of Buckland. This cave, which 

 is situated at the entrance to Kirkdale, contained an extensive accumulation of 

 bony remains covered by a deposit of mud, the whole overlaid by stalagmite. Ao 

 human remains or traces of human workmanship liave been found m this cave, 

 nor is there evidence of more than one period of occupation by predaeeous beasts 

 (Phillips). The cave would appear to have been a hyeena den, most of the bones 

 being well gnawed, and the proportion of hysena remains being exceptionally large. 



BOTANY.— The Botanical Section \\ill be officially represented by Mr. 

 Albert H. Pawson and Mr. M. B. Slater, two of its secretaries. 



Mr. Allan B. liall reports that but very little appears to be known definitely 

 of the botany of this district. Daphne laureola grows in a field near the Cricket 

 Ground. By the road-side near the mill in Douthwaite Dale is a large ]xatch 

 of Airopa belladonna, and the followin.cr plants have been found in Douthwaite Dale, 

 between the mill and Grouse Hall ; Habeiiaria bifolia. Narcissus psendo-narcisstis^ 

 Trollius europictis, Myrrhis odorata, Carcx hirta, C. pendula, and C. panicnlala. 

 Near Gillamoor the following are found : Anten^mria dioiea, Genista angJica^ 

 Kanunculus hederaeens, and Geu>n intermedium. Several of the rnre orchids, fly, 

 bee, etc., grow around here and may reward the searcher, though the season is 

 rather late for the flowers. 



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