54 
is made up of a breccia of hematite ore and limestone, in 
large irregular blocks, cemented together into a compact 
mass. It was so rich with ore at the surface, as to be 
worth working, and an open quarry was commenced, and a 
large quantity removed, but the impurity of the product 
soon led to its abandonment. It is very evident that this 
face of limestone was at one period covered with a large 
deposit of hematite ore, since denuded. 
Wherever a fault or fissure occurs in the face of the 
quarry it is filled with ore, evidently from above. Many of 
these veins of ore have appeared so rich as to induce the 
miners to follow them by shafts ; but no large pockets re- 
warded the search, the main limestone being too regular 
and compact to admit of any large masses. It is, however, 
quite evident that if any large cavities had occurred, they 
would have been filled in from above with iron ore, as is 
the case at the neighbouring mines of Gutterby, Bigrigg, 
Parkside, &c. 
We have, therefore, evidence in this quarry — First, of a 
deposition of hematite iron ore by water, after the lime- 
stone had been uplifted into its present position, or nearly 
so ; and secondly, the denuding action of running water, 
and afterwards of the erosion by drift ice, probably coeval 
with our own boulder drift, and from the same centre of 
glacial action. Under more favourable circumstances these 
powerful agents might have been instrumental in deposit- 
ing large masses of hematite ore as there is abundant evi- 
dence that this has been the case within a very short dis- 
tance from Aldby — large masses of iron ore having been 
worked by open quarry, lying in exactly similar positions 
as the small crevice-filled cavities first described. It is 
