Pickering, which is a roughly oval area almost entirely covered with alluvial deposits 
and post-glacial sands and gravels. This oval is elongated in an east and west 
direction, and is bounded on the north, west, and south-west by Oolitic hills, and 
on the south-east by the Chalk Wolds. The remarkable course of the Derwent 
— which, rising near the coast, flows westward instead of taking the valleys to the 
east — is a well-known instance of erratic river flow, and points to an extension of 
high land much further to the eastward in the early period of the formation of this 
vale. The whole of the drainage of this oval area is carried away by the Derwent 
through the gorge at Malton, and in the opinion of many observers this basin was 
once a lake or great sea-loch. 
On either side of Kirkby Moorside a long sinuous valley runs northwards 
cutting deep grooves into the table-like hills and exposing interesting sections of the 
Middle and Lower Oolitic beds, which dip gently to the south and are exposed in 
order as we pass northwards. The Lower Oolites, which ir this area consist of a 
great series of estuarine, marine, and freshwater beds, divided into three series, 
'each of which is capped by a thin but well-marked band full of marine fossils' 
(Fox-Strangway), are exposed at the northern extremities of these valleys, but in 
their lower reaches the beds seen are confined to the Middle Oolites. It is to these 
that the attention of the geological section will be principally directed. Immediately 
above the dark shales of the Cornbrash (the topmost bed of the Lower Oolites) 
comes the Kellaways rock, which in this area is a * thick-bedded soft sandstone, 
usually rather ferruginous.' 'In its upper portion there is a red calcareous band 
from which most of the fossils are obtained, the rest of the formation being entirely 
unfossiliferous.' This band contains several species of Ammonites and many 
bivalves. The Oxford clay in this area is a grey sandy shale ' litholcgically very 
unlike its equivalent in the south of England.' Its fossils are few in number and 
badly preserved. 
The Lower Calcereous Grit is *a masssve, yellow, calcereous sandstone, 
becoming more shaly towards its lower portion.' Above this come the Passage 
Beds with the ' Greystone,' a hard siHceous rock much false bedded. 
The capping rock of a great part of the tabular hill above Kirkby is the 
Coralline Oolite, a massive thick bedded limestone 'composed of minute Oolitic 
grains with a great number of fossils.' The limestone is divided into two principle 
beds, separated by a thin set of sandstones known as the Middle Calcareous Grit. 
Kirkby Moorside itself stands on the Upper Calcareous Grit, whilst the rising 
ground immediately above the town to east, west, and south is capped by blue 
Kimeridge Clay. This clay is supposed to underly the greater part of the post- 
glacial deposits of the Vale of Pickering, but it is only revealed in occasional patches 
in the central area. 
Patches of boulder clay occur in the neighbourhood of Kirkby, one of which 
is cut through by the North Eastern Railway near Kirkby Mills. 
In the Coralline Oolite of this area there are many caves, one of which — the 
Cave of Kirkdale — is celebrated by the researches of Backland, This cave, which 
is situated at the entrance to Kirkdale, contained an extensive accumulation of 
bony remains covered by a deposit of mud, the whole overlaid by stalagmite. No 
human remains or traces of human workmanship have been found in this cave, nor 
is there evidence of more than one period of occupation by predaceous beasts 
(Phillips). The cave would appear to have been a hysena den, most of the bones 
being well gnawed, and the proportion of hyaena remains being exceptionally large. 
BOTANY. — The Botanical Section will be ofificially represented. 
Flowering Plants : —Mr. H. Slater writes: — The district is a paradise for 
botanists, though many of the most interesting plants are not now in bloom. It 
should be noted how various species affect the limestone and calcareous grit 
respectively, as they crop out in the dales. The following are amongst the plants 
that should be met with : — Aquilegia vulgaris^ Actcea spicata^ Hypericum monta- 
num^ H. pulchrunty Geranium pratense, G. pyrenaicu?n, Euonymus europaeuSy 
Rubui $axatiliSy Prunus padus, Epilobiufn angustifoliufn^ Carduus eriophorus, 
Inula conyza, Atropa belladonna (abundant in Douthwaite Dale), Parnassia 
talustrisy Solidago Virgazirea, Campanula latifolia, Vaccinium Vids-idcea, Pyrola 
media, Hyoscyamus niger, Veronica montana, Melampyrum pratense, Trientalis 
europcea, Drosera totundifolia, Alyrica gale, Epipactis palusiris. Orchis pyramidalis, 
0. incarnata, Habenaria conopsea, H. viridis, H. bifolia. Orchis apifera^ Melica 
nutans, Paris quadrifolia. 
A typical valley of the district is described in Baker's "North Yorkshire." 
