NOTES ON THE GEOLOGY OF CLEVELAND. 



83 



the agent of the metamorphosis. If, however, we consider the por- 

 tion of the strata at various points, the different angles and directions 

 of declination at which we find them, we arrive at once at the con- 

 clusion that aqueous action can only be referred to as the means of 

 having modified the superficial irregularities which had previously 

 been occasioned by a more powerful — a subterranean agency, 



That the Oolitic and Lias formations have obtained very much further 

 in a north- westerley direction — how much further I see no data for 

 ascertaining — their steep escarpments and abrupt termination towards 

 that quarter most clearly evidence ; and that the present inclinations 

 of the strata, dipping as they may be found to every point of the 

 compass, have been acquired subsequently to their formation, is only 

 in accordance with the great principle of horizontal deposition. The 

 general dip, however, of the strata is towards the south-east. 



The tremendous convulsion which raised the great Penine Alps of 

 England — that subterranean convulsion which uplifted the mountain 

 limestone to a height of a thousand yards through a length of nearly 

 se /enty miles, which, in all probability, broke the continuity of the 

 Yorkshire and Newcastle coal-fields, and which is justly termed one 

 of the most magnificent examples of dislocation in Europe. — This 

 stupendous disruption, I say — to which we may refer so many pheno- 

 mena — may be regarded as the probable cause of much which may not 

 otherwise be easily accounted for in the physical aspect of Cleveland. 



How vast and potent must have been the oceanic currents, which 

 caused the denudation of so great an extent of strata ! But, upon 

 the fractured edges of the dislocated strata, the violent action of the 

 waves and currents would exercise a wondrous wasting and excavating 

 power. Here, then, we have causes sufficient for the changes we 

 observe ; but, whether the actual efficiencies in operation, is a question 

 for others to decide. 



The rivers, as Professor Phillips observes, run from the north part 

 in valleys which the sea made for them : the gradual wasting, through 

 atmospheric agencies of the shales below has caused the superin- 

 cumbent solid rocks to fall away, and crumble in their turn. 



If we follow the course of the North Yorkshire Uailway we shall 

 see at a glance some of the instances of dislocation to which I have 

 referred above. A little more than a mile eastward from the village 

 of Kildale we notice the sandstone rock of the Inferior Oolite (which 

 I shall hereafter call the " Bottom Sandstone rock"), a few yards only 

 above the level of the valley on our right hand, going eastward ; 

 whilst, on the left towards Weyworth, it caps the summit of the 

 valley at a very considerable height, and is easily traced descending 

 very rapidly, as far as Commondale Station. At Castleton, which 

 stands upon this same Sandstone rock, a very considerable dislocation 

 is easily observed, which extends to a great distance eastward, and 

 becomes more and more apparent where the vale of Danby is narrower, 

 as at Danby Crag and Howlsike. The Esk here runs in a synclinal 

 axis of the strata, as is most clearly discernible in Crunkley Ghyl s 

 to which I shall have occasion to refer hereafter. 



