s. A. adamson: the skipton and ilkley railway. 203 



through this very stiff boulder clay. Then succeed two more 

 cuttings, Nos. 3 and 4, with embankments between ; No. 3, about 

 90 yards in length and about two feet deep ; No. 4, about 200 yards 

 in length with a greatest depth of 16 feet, also through boulder clay. 

 After passing along a lofty embankment we arrive at cutting No. 5,, 

 which forms the entrance to the tunnel. It is about 120 yards long, 

 and very deep, being at the mouth of the tunnel 60 feet in depth. 

 This is likewise through this obstinate boulder clay. Along the 

 sides of the cutting were huge heaps of the boulders which had been 

 extracted ; they w^ere carefully looked over, but appeared to be 

 nearly all constituted of local gritstones and mountain hmestone. 

 This boulder clay rests directly upon the limestone, and a section 

 was seen showing the junction very finely, the limestone dipping at 

 an angle of about 55 degrees. Where the boulder clay had been 

 entirely removed the weathered surface of the limestone was exposed^ 

 and this showed well the corrugations arising from denudation, so 

 familiar upon limestone surfaces. When making this cutting a pot- 

 hole was discovered in the underlying limestone ; when found, it was 

 full of peat and silt, but was excavated and drained for a depth of 

 six feet, and then filled up with stone. The tunnel, which was 

 entered but for a very short distance, as blasting operations were in 

 progress, will, when completed, be 220 yards in length, and lies about 

 due north and south. The strata met with thus far in excavating 

 the tunnel are : boulder clay and limestone, limestone, boulder clay 

 interbedded with gravel and silt, and again limestone, through which 

 they were now driving. From the top of the tunnel (which runs 

 under the western spur of Haw Bank Quarry) a magnificent and 

 expansive view was obtained, right in front being Embsay Crag, with 

 the pretty village of Embsay nestling beneath ; sweeping eastwards 

 came Halton Heights, with the thickly-wooded hamlet of Halton 

 East ; further on, Simon's Fell and Beamsley Beacon. Turning to 

 the south-east could be seen one of the long ridges of Skipton Moor; 

 on the opposite side of the Skibeden Valley (along which the direct 

 road from Skipton to Ilkley runs, thence through Draughton, by 

 Chelker Reservoir, and down into Addingham), westwards, the 

 horizon could be seen bounded by Pendle Hill and I.ongridge Fell, 

 in Lancashire ; working round northwards we had the gritstone peaks 

 of Flasby Fells and Rylstone Fell, till the circuit was completed by 

 Crookrise and Deer Gallows on Embsay Moor — one of those 

 majestic stretches of landscape which enables the geologist to grasp 

 the physical features around him. A short walk brings one to the 

 other entrance to the tunnel, which is approached by Cutting No 53^ 

 a little over 600 yards in length, and greatest depth 60 feet (at the 



July 1887. ' 



