NOTES AND QUERIES. 



493 



Landslip in the Isle of Sheppy. — Sm, — The foUowmg extract from a 

 Kentish newspaper, dated Sept. 25, 1859, may be wortli preser\dng in your 

 magazine, which shoidd be the geologist's repository for recorded facts. " An 

 extraordinary slip of land has recently taken place at Warden-point, on the 

 north-east end of the Isle of Sheppy, which has placed the ancient church of 

 of that parish in great danger, as the east end of the church is only forty-one 

 feet from the edge of the cliff. Persons residing near the church state that for 

 three or four days previous to the slip taking place a noise was heard at very 

 short intervals like distant thunder. Several parts of the land (pasture), with 

 rows of large trees, hurdles, fences, and hedges, have dropped down, and the 

 trees stand, with the hedges, ' hurdles, &c., perfectly upright, as though they 

 had been moved by magic ; other trees are partially inclined towards the sea, 

 and others are quite reversed ; the immense roots, the growth of many years, 

 are turned upwards, but not a single tree is buried by the soil. A landslip of 

 less magnitude took place about two years since, which together with the 

 present one acted upon a space of more than ten acres of pasture land, in con- 

 sequence of which the coast-guard station at this place, beuig considered unsafe, 

 has recently been taken down. The land for some considerable distance south- 

 east of the church is still opening in large chasms, varying from three inches 

 to three feet, and in depth from three to thii-ty feet." — Yours &c., J. K. T. 



Geology of Haerogate. — Sir, — I am at present staying in Harrogate, 

 Yorkshire, and am very much at a loss as to the geology of the neighbourhood, 

 and the best localities for finding fossils. Thuikmg it was possible that 

 some of your readers might find the same ditficulty, I have ventured to make 

 the inquiry, which I hope to have answered through the medium of the 

 "Geologist," — Yours trulv, a Subscriber and Beginner. — Harrogate is 

 situated on the miUstone-grit (or carboniferous sandstones of the series below 

 the coal-measures.) These sandstones (or Yorkshire flagstones) do not yield 

 many fossils ; occasionally a few casts of stems, and some tracks of animals — 

 referred to worms, crustaceans, fishes, &c. Fossil rain-prints are said to have 

 been seen on some of the sui-faces of the slabs. At Knaresborough, three or 

 four miles east of Harrogate, the red rocks and magnesian limestone of the 

 Permian series occur. This limestone is at places rich in fossils. The coal is 

 absent there ; but to the south, near Leeds, it is found in its place on the mill- 

 stone-grit, and passmg under the Permian rocks to the east of , that town; 

 and these in their turn disappear under the New Red sandstone, and clays of 

 the Vale of York. About fifteen miles west of Harrogate, the lower rocks are 

 exposed beneath the Carboniferous sandstone, namely the Yoredale slates and 

 limestone, at Bolton Abbey, and the great "Scar" limestone is also shown at 

 places near by, but still better to the north west in Wharfedale and Ribblesdale. 

 In the latter vaUey the stiU lower rocks (Silurian) come to day. The geologi- 

 cal map of Yorkshire, by Prof. J. Phillips, (sold by Monkhouse, York) 

 should be the excursionist's companion in the wilds and vaUeys of Yorkshire. 



Sedimentary Deposit of Minerals in a Rock Strata. — Sir, — Your 

 obliging notice of my queries respecting the sedimentary deposit of mmerals, 

 leads me to explain more clearly the views I hold respecting the origin of 

 minerals, and their dispersion and subsequent aggregation in the various strata. 

 Throwing aside preconceived ideas of internal heat, let us remember that our 

 globe was probably first gaseous, then liquid, and now soHd ; that minerals have 

 been condensed from the air and sea, not sublimated from beneath. When land 

 emerges from the ocean it is saturated with all the various compounds of the 

 sixty elements. Its elevation is, I conceive, generally speaking the superficial 

 result of volcanic action, and an eidargement of its volume through the forces of 

 crystallization. On its exposure to drymg uifluences, the land becomes fissured, 

 and its constituent parts attempt to assume an aggregate state, each metal and 

 VOL. II. z z 



