Yorkshire Naturalists at Barns ley. 



297 



With reference to the Geolog-y, the report of Mr. Cosmo 

 Johns, F.G.S., is as follows: — 'As mig-ht have been expected 

 from a district so characteristic of the Middle Coal Measures, 

 the country was rather featureless. The softness of the sand- 

 stones contributes to this and thus helps to distingfuish the 

 scenery from the Lower Coal Measures, with their bolder 

 escarpments and the rug-ged grandeur of the Millstone Grit. 

 The excursion was, however, by no means uninteresting. What 

 was lacking in surface features was more than compensated for 

 by the intimate knowledge of the structure of this portion of the 

 Yorkshire coalfield that could be gleaned from the sections 

 obtained during the sinking and working of the numerous 

 collieries that are scattered over this great mining district. 

 Before considering the structural details it would, perhaps, be 

 better to refer to the interesting drift section seen near Cudworth 

 Station. It is probably post-glacial in age, and the stream that 

 runs through the cutting drains the Royston area so famous for 

 its records of erratics. A careful search was not without 

 reward, for a few quartz pebbles that could be referred to Mill- 

 stone Grit and several fragments of Carboniferous chert were 

 found. Mixed with the Middle Coal Measure pebbles were some 

 much resembling gannister. The deposit certainly deserves 

 more attention, and the local society might profitably devote 

 some time to it. After leaving the drift our way lay through 

 Ferry Moor, crossing the outcrops of the various rocks that 

 make up the upper portion of the Middle Measures, until the 

 breezy eminence known as Houghton Common was reached. 

 This is formed by the Houghton Common Rock ; towards the 

 east the measures could be seen dipping gently under the 

 Permian escarpment. The opportunity was here taken to discuss 

 the less apparent structural features, and to assist this the 

 intimate knowledge of the coal measures possessed by Mr. 

 H. B. Nash, of Barnsley, was courteously placed at the service 

 of the party. South-west Yorkshire owes its industrial pro- 

 minence to the energy stored up in the famous Barnsley hard 

 coal. Thus it was but natural that the changes this seam 

 undergoes towards the north should have received attention. 

 At Woolley, near Darton Station, the outcrop, which was not 

 crossed during the visit, shows in ascending series 14 inches of 

 'bottom softs,' 30 inches of hard coal, 11 inches of clay seam 

 with inferior coal. Then comes a parting of 6 inches of 

 ' spavin,' followed by 33 inches of ' top softs.' Two miles away 

 on the Wakefield side the seam has undergone a marked 



1905 October 2. 



