180 
HUGHES : INGLEBOROUGH. 
schistus, or rather, it might be said, that the lowest beds of Ume- 
stone contained in them many rounded fragments of stone, 
which, on comparison, exactly resembled the schistus under- 
neath." 
The old fashioned terminology does not lessen our apprecia- 
tion of the accuracy of Playfair's early observations. The 
schistus is spoken of as primary or primitive, while secondary 
includes the Carboniferous, and is not the same as Secondary, 
Avith a capital S, of later times. It is interesting to read the 
first impressions of this accomplished observer as he approached 
the section, and his description of the appearance of the m.outh 
of the cave where the great masses of horizontal limestone looked 
at a distance like lintels artificially supported by upright jambs 
on either side of the entrance. 
We can fully agree with him that " the circumstances are 
such as w^e cannot expect to see very often exemplified." 
Professor Phillips,* who did so much for the geology of 
Yorkshire, and to whose w^ork we shall have so frequently to 
refer in describing the Carboniferous rocks of Ingleborough, 
did not, in his earlier descriptions of this district, say much 
about the Basement Bed. One cannot but realise, even from 
the short descriptions which I quote, what a wonderfully good 
observer Phillips was. 
He says in one of his earliest papers,* " The lower beds of 
the northern range of limestone resting on slate are commonly 
filled with pebbles of slate and quartz. Generally very large 
boulders of slate lie at the bottom, and the higher beds contain 
less and fewer pebbles till the character of conglomerate finally 
vanishes in common limestone. The pebbly beds may be known 
at a distance by their horizontal laminae and weather-slits, which 
contrast decidedly with the vertical fissures of the equal-grained 
rocks above." 
He points out that this Basement Bed, in its relation to the 
Mountain Limestone, and its character and composition, closely 
* On a group of Slate Rocks ranging E.S.E. between the rivers Lune 
and Wliarfe, from near Kirby Lonsdale to near Malham ; and on the 
attendant Phsenomena. By John Phillips, F.G.S., Hon. Memb. of the 
Yorkshire, Leeds, and Hull Philosophical Societies. Read Dec. 21st, 1827, 
and Jan. 4th, 1828, Trans. Geol. Soc, vol. iii., 2nd Series. 
