663 
seek in the bowels of the earth ; as well as with those which, 
though perhaps worthless in themselves, generally indicate 
the presence or absence of the immediate objects of his 
search. Long and practical experience, aided by a 
knowledge of geology and mineralogy, can alone furnish 
him with this requisition, and is therefore essential to 
success. 
ON THE YORKSHIRE FLAGSTONES AND THEIR FOSSILS. BY 
SAMUEL BAINES, ESQ., OF HOLROYD HOUSE, LIGHT- 
CLIFFE, NEAR HALIFAX. 
My observations are intended to simplify a formation found 
in the vale of the Calder and its tributaries, in the eastern 
part of the parish of Halifax, distributed over the townships 
of Shelf, North and Southowram, Rastrick, and Hipper- 
holme-cum-Brighouse — a district which, I fear, has been 
much neglected by geologists. About the year 1831, the time 
of the first meeting of. the British Association in York, the 
prevailing opinion in the district coincided with Dean Cock- 
burn, that all fossils were created as they are found ; or, if 
changed, only by diluvial action ; or that the myriads of 
impressions on our shale were freaks of nature, similar to the 
crystallisation seen on windows in frost. It was a very sim- 
ple formation of what is termed the freestone that first struck 
me how regularly and slowly this strata was deposited, and 
suggested the idea that all the different strata of sedi- 
mentary rocks were formed in a like manner. On a 
bleak moor side, in the shelving formation of a fine 
sandstone, was a hollow dammed across for the accu- 
mulation of rain water for scouring purposes. In a few 
years it was filled up by a gradual deposit of sand. 
When dug out, it was a fine laminated strata. In noticing 
