THE GEOLOGIST. 



MARCH, 1861, 



NOTES ON THE GEOLOGY OF CLEVELAND. 

 By Charles Pratt, Esq., Oxford. 



The district of which it is the object of the present paper to describe 

 the principal geological features, has within the last few years 

 attracted an extraordinary amount of interest and attention, as well 



I from scientific observers as from those who are always seeking some 



j fresh outlet for the investment of their capital. Until a period so 

 recent as little more than twelve years ago, it was only for its fertile 

 meadows and picturesque scenery of hill and dale, that Cleveland 

 had gained any celebrity ; but a metamorphosis so truly marvellous has 

 since that time taken place, that it is already entitled to be associated 

 with the most productive iron-making districts in the United Kingdom, 



I and what, in all probability, will be its future position in that respect 

 I shall not now venture to predict, although present circumstances 

 would seem to indicate that, at no very distant day, the great iron- 

 fields of South Staffordshire and South Wales must give place to 



j their youthful opponent in the north. 



The discovery, or more properly speaking, the development of the 

 great ironstone deposits of Cleveland in 1848 has given such a 

 stimulus to the iron manufacture of the district, and indeed, of the 

 country, as has seldom been experienced by any other branch of trade, 



j The present flourishing town of Middlesburgh, which, with its new 

 environs, has a population of nearly twenty thousand, for the most 

 part dependent on the iron trade, was, forty years ago, represented 

 by one solitary farmstead, with a census of five inhabitants : and in 

 like manner have all the surrounding villages in the neighbourhood 

 of the new works and mines multiplied their former dimensions with 

 amazing rapidity. But difficult though it be to know such facts and 

 not seek to make them known, I must pass on from my few observations 



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