286 
HUGHES : INGLEBOROUGH. 
Red Gait Head, or in the pot hole on New by Moss that receives 
the waters of Grey Wife Sike. 
And now, having made a circuit of the mountain, we get 
round on the south side of Ingleborough to perhaps the most 
interesting example of the waters of a steep embayed area 
being collected, engulfed, and thrown out below. For grandeur 
and beauty Gaping Gill is far surpassed by more than one of the 
swallow holes mentioned above, and for the study of the suc- 
cession and fossil contents of the uppermost part of the Great 
Scar it does not offer nearly as favourable opportunities as those 
which occur further north, but it is the most accessible, has been 
most explored, and exhibits some of the phenomena of denuda- 
tion in a manner that cannot often be seen. The succession 
also is not nearly as complete as in some other sections at this 
horizon (see section. Fig. 7). Producta, Spirifera, Zaphrentis, 
Lithostrotion, and Syringopora are fairly abundant, but it is 
not so easy to extract them from the rock here as in many other 
sections at tliis horizon. As we look north from the top of the 
great mass of drift, through which the water has cut the valley 
wliich is now tapped half way down the fell by Gaping Gill, v/e 
see a small river and its tributaries all complete before our 
eyes. The steep slopes of Ingrleborough on the left are drained 
by Riggs Sike, Sware Gill Sike, and Thack Pot Sike, which runs 
in close above Gaping Gill. Right in front of us the longest 
feeder, Green Hill Sike, rises on Simon Fell Breast and, catch- 
ing the waters of Wet Weather Sike and many a nameless runlet, 
soon asserts its right to be considered the principal stream, in 
the depth of its valley and the body of water which it carries. 
When it really " rains between the showers " on Ingleborough. 
the water is not confined to these small channels, but streams 
down over the steep crags and the drift and peat-covered slopes. 
Where it does get collected into the watercourses, the effect of 
such heavy bodies of water running down on such a slope is to 
tear away the superficial deposits and the jointed rock, and 
to make gashes along its course in every flood. As much of 
this ground consists of Boulder Clay, large blocks are hurled 
along the bed of the stream, grinding and bruising the surface 
of the limestone in its course. When they reach Gaping Gill 
