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THE GEOLOGIST. 



on its social geography, to what is my proper subject — the Geology 

 of Cleveland. 



The district is one of peculiar good fortune with respect to the 

 attention it has received from scientific explorers, and the number 

 of notices which it has called forth in various forms from those who 

 have so investigated it. I might seem, indeed, to be performing a 

 superfluous task in thus adding to their number, did I not feel confi- 

 dent that a compendious resume of the chief points of interest will 

 prove acceptable to many, even of those who have kept pace with all 

 that has hitherto been written on the subject. Much of what I shall 

 say has, doubtless, in one shape or other been said already ; but I 

 shall say little which I have not proved by personal examination on 

 the field, and at the same time shall correct some errors which I have 

 discovered in the remarks of some of those who have preceded me. 

 For a more elaborate account of the history of this district, and for 

 more extensive sections and analogies than I here am able to give, I 

 may refer the reader to a very valuable paper read by Mr. John 

 Marley, C E., before the Society of Mining Engineers, at Newcastle, 

 and published in the fifth volume of the proceedings of that excellent 

 society. A voluminous monograph has been very recently brought 

 out on the Cleveland ironstone, which contains much valuable infor- 

 mation. The writer, however, evinces a want of comprehensiveness 

 in his general ideas of geology ; and the volume, besides some in- 

 accuracies, contains so much which can only be of interest to the 

 writer himself, that I regret my inability to commend it, either as a 

 literary production, or as a scientific manual remarkable for brevity 

 and perspicuity. To other volumes and notices I shall give reference 

 as I proceed ; although I may mention that, to Professor Phillips in 

 particular is due the merit of having been the first, and I need hardly 

 add, the ablest investigator of this interesting portion of Yorkshire. 



The whole of Cleveland may be divided into the great plain, or 

 lowlands, and the hill-country, or highlands ; the former of which is 

 to a great extent surrounded and abruptly determined by a noble 

 range of hills, varying in altitude from one thousand to one thousand 

 five hundred feet, and which gives the whole scene the appearance of 

 a vast natural amphitheatre. 



Before I proceed to a descriptive account of the various strata, it 

 may be well to make a few observations upon the most striking 

 physical features, and the theory by which they are accounted for. 

 No one who has visited the lovely dales with which the south-east of 

 Cleveland is adorned can have failed to have been struck by the 

 gentle acclivities, the curiously- shaped "nabs," and the noble escarp- 

 ments, which alternately present themselves to the view ; and most 

 observers, doubtless, who have thought of the matter, have in their 

 own minds fixed upon some aetionary cause for all the pleasing 

 diversifications of scenery. To most, probably, the watery element 

 at once presents itself as the most familiar cause from which such a 

 result could flow ; and by some I know, the tiny stream, which slug- 

 gishly meanders through the vale, has been dignified by being made 



