333 



THE HITCHINGSTONE, KEIGHLEY MOOE. 



S. A. ADAMSON, F.G.S., 



Joint Geological Secretaiy to the Yorkshire Naturalists' Union, and Secretary to the Leeds 

 Geological Associatioii. 



The celebrated and time-honoured rock bearing the above name, 

 rests upon the moors about five miles to the west of Keighley. Cele- 

 brated it certainly has been for many generations, for in pre-scientific 

 days it attracted the notice of the curious and the superstitious. Did 

 not then the tradition go round how the wise woman of Cowling, in 

 the valley below, seeing the block in her garden, and liking its room 

 better than its company, thrust her broomstick into it, and suddenly 

 'hitched' it to the top of the moors above? And if any were in- 

 credulous, why, was not the hole still left (of which more presently) 

 showing where the broomstick had entered ? Later, when science 

 had enlightened the observers, the geological 'reason why' was applied 

 to it, and for the last forty years the presence of the Hitchingstone 

 in its solitary position has been attributed to icebergs, to land ice, 

 etc.; in fact, the 'Great Ice Age' was held to be sufficient to account 

 for it. Thus, in 1874, we find a Mr. E. G. Spencer reporting it to the 

 Boulder Committee of the British Association, at the Belfast meeting, 

 as an erratic or ice-borne boulder. It must be said, however, that 

 the account was hardly accurate enough, nor was the examination 

 sufficiently exhaustive, to justify such a decision or report. A few 

 years later, Mr. J. R. Dakyns, of the Government Geological Survey, 

 who had surveyed the whole district, stated, in a letter to the Geo- 

 logical Magazine, that ' in his opinion it is not a boulder,' and in a 

 further communication says : ' It has no single characteristic of a 

 boulder about it. It is not rounded or scratched, nor is it standing on 

 end, nor in any such a way as to raise a suspicion of its having been 

 removed.' In the face of such conflicting statements, it was felt, for 

 the honour of Yorkshire geology, that something should be done to 

 solve the problem. The writer of these notes, in a lecture before the 

 Keighley Scientific Society on ' Erratics,' given last winter, suggested 

 that this would be practical work for them to accomplish. The idea 

 was taken up, and the Boulder Committee of the British Association 

 communicated with for instructions. These were duly received and 

 acted upon, and the investigation carried to a successful issue. 

 Although the work was nominally done by the Keighley Society, it is 

 only fair to state that it was really executed by a single member, 

 Mr. Daniel Smith, who, being very enthusiastic in the matter, claimed 

 as a native of Cowling the privilege of bearing the entire expense. 



Nov. 1886. 



