A GEOLOGICAL HISTORY. 17 



for animals to drink out of; but alas ! in an evil 

 hour, it was conceived by the owner of the land 

 to quarry the stone at this very spot, and all the 

 curiosity, with the beauty, is now gone. The 

 quarrying at this place had laid bare some hundred 

 feet of surface, on which was seen what are called 

 "wave-marks,"* and which resemble the sand 

 ripples of the sea-shore, after the tide has fallen, 

 at the time of a calm. These wave-marks were no 

 doubt caused by the waters passing through a 

 seam, which lay in a position nearly horizontal, 

 and forming an inclined table, over which the 

 water passes to its outlet, the spring : hence not 

 all the " ripple-marks" mentioned by geologists, 

 and which are supposed by them to be caused by 

 the ocean's ebb, are made in that way, but may 

 have been formed by water (as in this case) passing 

 through seams and fissures of rocks, particularly 

 the Limestone rocks, which water has the power 

 of dissolving. 



Another curious fact, although not strictly geo- 

 logical, may be mentioned here, as it caused some 

 wonder about 40 years ago. There were then three 



* I visited this locality three weeks since, and found still some remains 

 of the " ripples" on the rock, but they have been mostly obliterated by the 

 crumbling structure of the rock, and the trampling of the cattle which 

 go to drink out of a pool which yet remains on the lower edge of the 

 rjuarry. 



