84 



THE GEOLOGIST. 



Before I proceed further with my notes, it may be as well to give 

 a tabular section of the various strata as exhibited in this district, 

 preparatory to their minute division and explanation. It will be 



observed that they are confined to 

 the middle and lower divisions of 

 the great Mesozoic series. 



Although I have endeavoured to 

 show in my section the compara- 

 tive thickness of the several divi- 

 sions, we shall find that they vary 

 very considerably in the extent of 

 their development at different parts 

 of even the small district under our 

 present notice. 



The following may be understood 

 as a general view of the series : 



g, Impure limestone, with shales, 

 sandstones, &c, above 200 feet. 



/, Shales, sandstones, ironstones, 

 with fossil plants and thin seams of 

 coal — 500 feet. 



e, Sandstone and ferruginous beds 

 —70 feet. 



d, Upper Lias shales — 200 feet, 

 c, Ironstone and marlstone series 

 —150 feet. 



b, Lower Lias shales — 500 feet. 

 a, Poecilitic gypseous marls. 

 I shall now proceed to examine 

 the various beds of which these 

 series are composed, taking them 

 in the order of their deposition. 



a, It is only the extreme western 

 and north-western part of Cleve- 

 land where we find the lowest divi- 

 sion of our section apparent on the 

 surface, and where, in fact, it forms 

 the extreme northern termination 

 of that long continuous New Red 

 belt, which has one extremity in 

 the rich vales of Taunton and Exeter, and its other in the broad 

 estuary of the Tees. It is most easily seen in the district under 

 notice, on the banks of the Leven and other smaller streams near 

 Hutton Rudby, although I am not aware that its thickness has ever 

 been accurately ascertained. A short distance below the village, the 

 whole bed of the picturesque Leven is paved with the ripple-marked 

 shales, which are so general in this part of the series. To the geolo- 

 gical student of vivid imagination, how strange to stand upon these 

 rippled beds and call to fancy's view the scene which, aeons upon aeons 



