HUGHES : mOLEBOROUGH. 
267 
is quite full of water no sounds are emitted. All this chemical 
and mechanical underground denudation is perpetually going 
on ; even a boulder of limestone from the drift, when uncovered 
and exposed to the weather, in a very few years becomes fretted 
by the weather. The covering cake of soil held together by 
roots often conceals the operations taking place beneath it, till 
in some rainstorm the last supporting clod gives way and the 
surface soil and drift suddenly sink into the cavity which has 
been formed. Mr. Haythornthwaite, of Kirkby Lonsdale, 
told me that he had seen this happen here, about 100 yards 
west of the Xew Inn, where the ground suddenly sank and a 
swallow hole was formed before his eyes. South-south-east of 
the New Inn, on ground having the suggestive name of Keld 
Bank, there is another interesting exhibition of similar pheno- 
mena. Douk Cave is a huge chasm into which the waters from 
Southern Scales Fell once all plunged. The stream has been 
diverted and an interesting example of the rock having broken 
down over a cave can be seen. 
Braithwaite Wife and Mere Gill Pot Holes and that named 
after Tatham's widow are similar to those above described, 
but Crina Bottom, above Ingleton, calls for more careful study. 
The black limestone which forms the uppermost portion of the 
Great Scar or Mountain Limestone, is seen in swallow holes 
along the breast of the hill above Red Gait Head, at about 
1,500 feet above O.D., and runs south towards the intermittent 
stream known as Green Springs. This is now the principal 
feeder of Hard Gill, which runs into Crina Bottom. When we 
get down into the valley near the farm, at an elevation of about 
1,150 feet, we find traces of alluvial deposits, first gravel three 
feet, on peaty mould three feet, then, in front of the farm, loam 
on gravel, while patches of alluvial deposits, derived perhaps 
from the overflow of the swallow holes, occur here and there 
all down the bottom of the valley. There is one large swallow 
hole known as Rantrey (? Rowantree) Hole, south of the farm 
on the opposite side of the valley, with a well close to it. It is 
curious to find torrential gravel and flood water loam in such 
a situation, where we should expect it would be all carried 
down into the swallow holes. 
