120 HUDLESTON: EXCURSION. 
gram) is a remarkable rock ; below this are other shales and 
another peculiar g'rit. 
The Yoredale Grits at Harrogate are so peculiar that, being 
in some way connected also with the phenomena of the sulphur 
springs, a brief description may be useful, before proceeding to 
consider the subject of the waters themselves. A large hand 
specimen from the Beckwithshaw quarry shows three different 
phases. Firstly, a fine-grained quartzo-felspathic grit without 
lime ; secondly, a calciferous encrinital grit, where the lime has 
mostly been removed, but where the structure of the crinoidal 
stem is better brought out in consequence ; thirdly a more cal- 
careous portion. A hand specimen from the bottom of the sulphur 
well on Harlow Carr is a very fine-grained quartzo-felspathic grit 
with much white mica, and coaly matter in bands and blotches. 
In the Low Harrogate quarry (Cold Bath Road), the crinoidal 
character is very pi-evalent, and where the soluble matter has been 
removed, it becomes a spongy, silicious, encrinital grit. The de- 
composition of this rock produces a good soil, but we may well 
believe that the surface beds have already parted with some of 
their constituents, and the iron-stained nature of the joint faces 
points in the same direction ; it is in the stuff formed in these 
cracks that the little double-pyramid quartz crystals, known as 
Harrogate diamonds, have been deposited. 
The Harrogate waters,* both sulphur and iron, occur in con- 
nection with a ti-iangular patcli of Yoredale rocks, of which a cross 
section is seen in PI. IV., Fig. 1. This patch is bounded towards the 
N.W. by the main fault, and extends for about three miles S.W. 
of Harrogate. There are about 80 springs in all. The strongest 
waters rise in the little valley of Low Harrogate between the Bog 
Field, 375 feet, and the Montpelier Spa, 335 feet. This is the 
nucleus of the sulphur waters ; the strong iron waters are near, 
but usually occupy an outer area. It is evident that an iron water 
* For further details consult "The Harrogate Waters," by George Ohver, 
M.D.— H. K. Lewis, London. 
