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426 1>E RANGE : BORINGS FOR WATER AND SALT IN COUNTY YORK. j 
material and form watertight boundaries : water absorbed at the out- 1 
crop of the Grit beds flows down the dip, but if let off by a fault the 
water is thrown out as springs. In the Millstone Grits water is 
readily absorbed and flows mainly through joints, a supply from this . 
source consequently quickly responds to rainfall, and has not the 
same retentive capacity as characterises the sandstone of the New 
Red Series. Barnoldswick, near Skipton, is supplied by a well and 
boring in the Millstone Grit, at a site chosen by the author. 
The Yorkshire Coal Measures contain numerous beds of sand- ' 
stone of considerable value for water-supply purposes. In search of 
coal their thickness has been proved, but they have not been rendered ; 
available for water supply as much as might have been expected. ! 
For the following details the writer is largely beholden to Professor | 
Green, F.R.S. 
The Oakenshaw, or Clifton Rock is generally a massive full- \ 
bedded sandstone, much divided by joints : it is close in grain, and ' 
gritty in texture. In some districts it is in two beds, and the upper ' 
is called the Shortcliffe Sandstone Bed. The Thornhill Rock is the ' 
most important Middle Coal Measure Sandstone in the northern part ' 
of the field ; it is a close-grained, thin-bedded, valuable building { 
stone, locally traversed by vertical joints. It occurs beneath the < 
Haigh Moor Coal and above the Joan Coal, and is locally known as the \ 
Dewsbury Bank, Morley, Middleton, Robin Hood, and Oulton Rock, j 
Above the Parkgate Coal is the Parkgate, Croppingate or Birstall 1 
Rock. At Scholes Colliery it is 90 feet thick ; at the Old Pit Moor 
Colliery 170 feet, where it reaches its thickest ; it is thickly bedded, 
rather coarse, much jointed, and yields a large supply of water, - 
I'equiring much pumping when it directly overlies the Coal. It was ^ 
named the Bradgate Rock by William Smith, after the village where \ 
it is largely quarried. 
The Woolley Edge Rock overlies the Wathwood Coal at Womb- \ 
well Main, where it is 120 feet 2 inches, with 12^ feet of shale 
intervening. East of Whitwell Main it lies above the Wakefield Coal, ''^ 
and 38 feet of it is described as the "Bleeding Rock," exuding acid ; 
water, this blistering the hands of the sinkers. The area of the rock is 1 
bounded by a line running west between Pontefract and Castleford, by " 
Normanton ; then south by Woolley Edge, passing west of Hemingfield. j 
