A RAMBLE UP BURNHOPE. II3 



Lime and part of the overlying sliales and sandstones, and 

 tlien penetrated between those beds above the Tynebottom 

 Limestone, converting them into the metamorphic whetstone. 

 This is also its position at the quarry in Killhope, on the other 

 side of the fault, as observed on this ramble, and it tended to 

 confirm me in my belief in the intrusive character of the whin 

 in Weardale, and of its later date than the overlying beds. 



On the left bank of the stream the whin is being quarried, 

 and the manager, in very kindly taking me over the quarry, 

 called my attention to various interesting points. The peculiar 

 step-like formation of the trap-rock, from which it takes its 

 name, was well seen. 



At one place on the south-west side of the quarry there is a 

 large " pencil bed," with whinstone above and below it, as if, 

 when the molten lava was being forced in between the beds, 

 a mass of shale had become detached and slipped in among 

 the hot pasty whin, and so become metamorphosed by the 

 heat into a detached mass of whetstone. Passing a heap of 

 broken stone I was fortunate enough to pick up a piece of 

 Pectolite, a mineral which is a silicate of lime and soda, and 

 occurs in trap-rocks The manager afterwards gave me a 

 better specimen, which is pure silky white, and beautifully 

 shows the radiating masses of crystals, small detached portions 

 of which showed, under the pocket lens, like little bits of 

 closely packed thistle down. 



It was getting near train time, and I wanted to get a sand 

 at the fall, so hurrying back along the quarry road I crossed 

 the bridge, where some fine old plane trees overhang the few 

 houses at Burtree Ford. Taking the path which goes down 

 to Wearhead on the south side of the burn, and crossing a 

 field, I clambered down to the bed of the stream below the 

 fall. It was a most picturesque spot. The dashing water 

 tumbling clean over the almost horizontal limestone ledges 

 above on to the sandstone below, the bridge spanning the 

 stream over the fall, the old houses on the right, the moss- 

 covered rocks, the graceful ferns and waving grasses on the 

 ledges, the yellow compositse of various kinds, the tall stiff 



