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YORKSHIRE NATURALISTS AT SEDBERGH. 



August Bank-holiday week-end was one of those rare occasions 

 upon which the members of the Yorkshire Xaturahsts' Union 

 were not favoured with fair weather. \Mth hardly a break 

 the rain fell continuously ; and even the hospitality of the 

 White Hart Hotel hardly seemed to atone for the daily walks 

 through the dripping vegetation, the wades through the swollen 

 streams, and the tramps across the bleak fells. The illness of 

 the local secretary, Mr. W. Robinson, was also a serious draw- 

 back ; but with the guidance of Messrs. Cosmo Johns, E. 

 Hawkesworth and W. Ingham, the counsel of Mr. John Handley, 

 and the exceedingly valuable local help given b}^ ]\Ir. J. M. 

 Iveson, a profitable week-end was spent. 



And in the evenings, after dinner, the members got dried, 

 and compared notes. Good discussions also arose as a result 

 of papers by Mr. R. H. Philip on ' The Diatoms of Sedbergh,' 

 and Mr. Cosmo Johns on ' the Nature of the Interior of the 

 Earth.' Another took place in reference to botanical and 

 geological nomenclature. 



On the excursions the geologists first proceeded to the 

 Cautley Valley, where the rocks, though greatly faulted and 

 folded, are fairly well exposed, and are accompanied by much 

 volcanic and igneous material. Exposru-es of lavas and beds 

 of ashes, apparently contemporaneous with the deposition of 

 the Bala limestone, were visited, as was also the splendid section 

 about a mile away, described by Professor McKenny Hughes as 

 the most complete section in the lower beds of the Silurian and 

 the upper beds of the Bala series. Some time was devoted to 

 an examination of the two dissimilar conglomerates at the base 

 of the Carboniferous rocks, as they are rarely found, as here, 

 in near juxtaposition. 



Another day was devoted to Douker Gill and Nor Gill. The 

 former exhibits the results of the Dent Fault, and in one place 

 the Coniston Flags abut against the Carboniferous limestone, 

 and almost throughout the whole course of the stream the rocks 

 show the crushing effects of the Fault. In Nor Gill a very 

 interesting section is exposed, showing a great mass of red 

 conglomerate, as to the exact age of which there is some dispute. 

 It has generally been looked upon as the basement bed of the 

 Carboniferous system in England, and in Scotland as of Upper 

 Old Red Sandstone Age. There certainly is a conglomerate 



1909 Oct. I. 



