THE GEOLOGIST. 
f 
MARCH, 1861. 
NOTES ON THE GEOLOGY OF CLEVELAND. 
By Charles Pratt, Esq., Oxford. 
The district of which it is the object of the present paper to describe 
the principal geological features, has within the last few years 
attracted an extraordinary amount of interest and attention, as well 
from scientific observers as from those who are always seeking some 
ft'esli outlet for the investment of their capital. Until a period so 
recent as little more than twelve years ago, it was only for its fertile 
meadows and picturesque scenery of hill and dale, that Cleveland 
had gained any celebrity ; but a metamorphosis so truly marvellous haa 
since that time taken place, that it is already entitled to be associated 
with the most productive iron-making districts in the United Kingdom, 
and what, in all probabihty, will be its future position in that respect 
I shall not now venture to predict, although present circumstances 
would seem to indicate that, at no very distant day, the great iron- 
fields of South Staffordshire and South Wales must give place to 
their youthful opponent in the north. 
The discovery, or more properly speaking, the development of the 
great ironstone deposits of Cleveland in 1848 has given such a 
stimulus to the iron manufacture of the district, and indeed, of the 
country, as has seldom been experienced by any other branch of trade. 
The present flourishing town of Middlesburgh, which, with its new 
environs, has a population of nearly twenty thousand, for the most 
part dependent on the iron trade, was, forty years ago, represented 
by one solitary farmstead, with a census of five inhabitants : and in 
like manner have all the surrounding villages in the neighbourhood 
of the new works and mines multiphed their former dimensions with 
amazing rapidity. But difficult though it be to know such facts and 
ribt seek to make them known, I must pass on from my few observations 
VOL. IV. L 
