PROCEEDINGS OF GEOLOGICAL SOCIETIES. 



101 



of it may be seen at the railway cutting at Simp summit. This cut, fa- 

 mous in the annals of railway* engineering, is right through a hill of hard 

 metamorphic green slate rock, which, when the Old lied Sandstone waters 

 washed this coast, was a small peninsula or promontory of rock running 

 out into the sea, presenting steep cliffs at low water, but nearly submerged 

 by the higher tides. On each side of the hill, not quite to its summit, are 

 the deposits of the old shore ; first, at the bottom of the cliff, a true sand- 

 stone of only small thickness ; after it, red shales and coarse conglomerates ; 

 higher still, the red colour disappears, and beds of fine gravel have been 

 formed of the disintegrated slate and granite rocks from the neighbouring 

 hills. This has been washed and tossed about by storms, into the crevices of 

 the sea-cliffs, where it may now be seen, as regularly stratified as any other 

 shingle on the coasts of the present day. This coast-line is not traceable 

 further north. It is difficult to tell whether the upper beds of this old 

 shore-line belong to the Old Red Sandstone, or the Carboniferous series ; we 

 may, however, admit it as marking the transition, and recording the fact, 

 that at that time no commotion had disturbed the relative positions of land 

 and water on this coast, such as marked the close of the Silurian era. 



The first deposit in ascending order, is a limestone of considerable thick- 

 ness ; it is of three different characters, the lowest strata are of dun colour, 

 the calcareous matter in a loose state of crystallization, and mixed with 

 line mud ; the next higher division more regularly stratified, contains a 

 large proportion of silica, containing quantities of waterworn. In the 

 lowest division are portions of Stigmaria, Lepidodendron, Catamites, and 

 Equisetaceae. From the general character of this limestone, it must have 

 been a littoral deposit from a quiet sea, subject, however, to various changes 

 in tidal currents. The next in ascending order is a thick sandstone, the 

 most important in quality, well adapted for architectural purposes. Above 

 the sandstone is a limestone, of blue colour and fine texture, containing 

 large numbers of flint nodules ; the flint in some cases predominating so 

 much as to form bods, interstratified with the limestone. These beds are 

 prolific in Groniatites. Associated with these are innumerable Producti, 

 on the upper surface of each stratum, lying in beds like the modern cockle 

 or mussel. During the gradual deposit of stratum after stratum, corals 

 of several beautiful varieties have fixed themselves to the hardened mud, 

 or some dead shell at the bottom of the sea, and diligently erected their 

 little temples ; but they have never attained a size of more than five or six 

 inches in height. 



A slight change has now taken place in the diversity of other lands, or 

 the sea-bottom, affecting the currents; the land has gradually risen, and 

 we next find a deposit of a sandy composition, only a very few feet in 

 thickness, upon which follow the innumerable beds of limestone, forming 

 the Great Orton Scar series, of immense thickness. Its lower series par- 

 take of the character of a deep-sea deposit ; but what power, and how di- 

 rected, has raised them to their present high elevation, without consider- 

 ably disturbing the underlying strata, is ddlicult to define. It forms the 

 whole of Ashy and Orton Scars, llardendale Nab, and Ivnipe Scar, the 

 highest peaks in the surrounding country, vying in height and precipitous 

 escarpments with the old slate mountains. It may truly be termed the 

 backbone of the area. There arc many thousands of acres, known as 

 Orton Scars, of this rock, perfectly hare, a wild barren stony wilderness, 

 seldom relieved of its monotonous grey tone, sa\e here and thereby the 

 fronds of the bracken, or more delicately-shaped fern, in the crevices, h is 

 not a plain of smooth stone, but broken up, and traversed in all directions 

 by chasms ten or twenty feet deep, and from six to ten feet across. These 



