PROCEEDrJN^GS OF GEOLOGICAL SOCIETIES. 
101 
of it may be seen at the railway cutting at Sliap summit. This cut, fa- 
mous in the annals of railway engineering, is right through a hill of hard 
metamorphic green slate rock, which, when the Old Eed Sandstone waters 
washed this coast, was a small peninsula or promontory of rock running 
out into the sea, presenting steep cliffs at low water, but nearly submerged 
by the liigher tides. On each side of the hill, not quite to its summit, are 
the deposits of the old shore ; tirst, at the bottom of the clilF, a true sand- 
stone of only small thickness ; after it, red shales and coarse conglomerates ; 
higher still, the red colour disappears, and beds of fine gravel have been 
formed of the disintegrated slate and granite rocks from the neighbouring 
hills. This has been washed and tossed about by storms, into the crevices of 
the sea-cliffs, where it may now be seen, as regularly stratified as any other 
shingle on the coasts of the present day. This coast-line is not traceable 
further north. It is difficult to tell whether the upper beds of this old 
shore-line belong to theOld Eed Sandstone, or the Carboniferous series I'vre 
may, however, admit it as marking the transition, and recording the fact, 
that at that time no commotion had distvn'bed the relative positions of land 
and water on this coast, such as marked the close of the Silurian era. 
The first deposit in ascending order, is a limestone of considerable thick- 
ness ; it is of three different characters, the lowest strata are of dun colour, 
the calcareous matter in a loose state of crystallization, and mixed with 
fine mud ; the next higher division more regularly stratified, contains a 
large proportion of silica, containing quantities of waterworn. In the 
lowest division are portions of Stigmaria, Lepidodendron, Calamites, and 
Equisetacea). From the general character of this limestone, it must have 
been a littoral deposit from a quiet sea, subject, however, to various changes 
in tidal currents. The next in ascending order is a thick sandstone, the 
most important in quality, well adapted for architectural purposes. Above 
the sandstone is a limestone, of blue colour and fine texture, containing 
large numbers of flint nodules ; the flint in some cases predominating so 
much as to form beds, interstratified with the limestone. These beds are 
prolific in Goniatites. Associated with these are innumerable Producti, 
on the upper surface of each stratum, lying in beds like the modern cockle 
or mussel. During the gradual deposit of stratum after stratum, corals 
of several beautiful varieties have fixed themselves to the hardened mud, 
or some dead shell at the bottom of the sea, and diligently erected their 
little temples ; but they have never attained a size of more than five or six 
inches in height. 
A slight change has now taken place in the diversity of other lands, or 
the sea-bottom, affecting the currents ; the land has gradually risen, and 
we next find a deposit of a sandy composition, only a very few feet in 
thickness, upon which follow the innumerable beds of limestone, forming 
the Great Orton Scar series, of immense thickness. Its lower series par- 
take of the character of a deep-sea deposit ; but what power, and how^ di- 
rected, has raised them to their present high elevation, without consider- 
ably disturbing the underlying strata, is difficult to define. It forms the 
whole of Asby and Orton Scars, Hardendale Nab, and Knipe Scar, the 
highest peaks in the surrounding country, vying in height and precipitous 
escarpments with the old slate mountains. It may truly be termed the 
backbone of the area. There are many thousands of acres, known as 
Orton Scars, of this rock, perfectly bare, a wild barren stony wilderness, 
seldom relieved of its monotonous grey tone, save here and thereby the 
fronds of the bracken, or more delicately-shaped fern, in the crevices. It is 
not a plain of smooth stone, but broken up, and traversed in all directions 
by chasms ten or twenty feet deep, and from six to ten feet across. These 
