NOTES ON THE GEOLOGY OF CLEVELAND. 
85 
ago, was there presented, before the monntains he now sees before 
him were brought forth, or ever the hills around him formed ! 
To sink through part of these shales and all the intervening strata 
to the coal formation below has been, as we need hardly wonder at, 
long a favourite project with the landed proprietors upon whose 
estates they crop out to the surface ; but, whether a consummation so 
devoutly to be wished, is ever likely to be reahsed, is a question which 
may well be doubted. If we consider the inclination of the seams at 
fhe southern extremity of the Durham coal-fields, (which is about 
twenty miles north of the district of which we speak, and the possi- 
bility of the attempt being made at a point where the coal attains a 
low depth in the fault (as we know the Lias is seldom conformable to 
pie carboniferous series) : and, moreover, if we think of the doubt 
which may reasonably be entertained as to whether the coal-measures 
do actually underlie the Lias of North Yorkshire or not, and the great 
depth to which must in any case be sunk before the question can be 
pronounced to be finally solved, I cannot certainly hold out any hopes 
that for many years to come Cleveland vnH be reckoned amongst the 
Qoal districts, or that ever a trial will be made with a result to satisfy 
all, who are either scientifically or pecuniarily interested in the matter. 
Although the search for coal has so often proved unfraitfiil, yet the 
aim prospect of such a rich mine of wealth does so easily beguile 
^he landed squire, that it seems an idea which the personal experience 
cf an attempt to realize this fond hope alone can banish from his mind. 
And if we beheve Sir Roderick Murchison,* amid all their failures 
we never meet with an individual who is 'really disheartened ; but a 
fi'equent exclamation is, " Oh, if our squires were only men of spirit, 
we should have as fine coal as any in the world !" An attempt was 
recently made on the estate of Visount Falkland, of which I cannot 
refraiQ from speaking in anything but terms of commendation — since 
the abandonment at a depth at which few would look for any result 
more than has been arrived at, has done nothing towards setting the 
queatJ'en at rest. Its continuance, if persisted in, should be a matter 
for |Kiblic, rather than private expenditure. As regards the gypseous 
marls of which we were speaking above, there seems nothLag of 
sufficient interest in them to detain us longer in our examination. 
h, The Loicer lAas shales obtain over most of the plain or lowlands 
of Cleveland, and are seen to a considerable height in most of the 
escarpments of the long range of hills. These beds, which we may 
safely estimate at five hundred feet in thickness, consist for the most 
part of a dark homogeneous indurated clay or shale, sub-calcareous 
Jjajids and layers of ironstone nodules, which are too much incon- 
siderable to be worked for profit, although when found on the shore, 
loose from and washed out of the surrounding shale, they have been 
shifqged^ small quantities for the furnaces on the Tyne. An excellent 
natural section of the upper part of the Lower Lias is visible on the 
Cleveland coast at Huntcliffe, and inland in the steep ravines on the 
• 
* Silurian system, part i., p. 328. 
