Mr Young on the Formation 
Our vales, river-courses, bays, and creeks, says he, have 
been formed chiefly by breaks and denudations. Some emi- 
nent geological writers have maintained, that the valleys have 
been formed by the streams which flow in them ; that every 
river has hollowed out its own channel in the hills through which 
it passes ; that bays and islets on the shore have been excavated 
by rivers, and by the action of the sea; and that the alluvial 
beds, even in the highest situations, have been deposited by 
rivers, that once flowed there. The phenomena which our dis- 
trict exhibits, can by no means be reconciled with such notions. 
The agency of rivers has indeed had a considerable effect in 
modifying their channels, but the channels have derived their 
origin from breaks and denudations of the strata ; to which al- 
so the indentations of the coast are principally owing. This is 
so much the case, that we observe some dislocation of the strata, 
at almost every bay and inlet of the coast, and at the mouth of 
almost every stream that runs into the ocean. The Esk did not 
cut its way into the sea through our rocky cliffs, but its channel was 
opened by a vast bre^k in the strata, and by the denudation or 
washing away of the loose materials, disengaged by the shock 
which this dislocation produced. The river may have filled up 
some hollows and inequalities of its original channel, but it can- 
not have excavated those extensive and diversified dales through 
which it runs. This is obvious from the circular shape of some 
of them, as that of Ruswarp ; from their general form and ar- 
rangement ; and from decisive indications of breaks, elevating 
the strata on the south side, and sinking those on the north. 
The numerous dales, that open into the vale of the Esk from the 
south, have originated in an equal number of fractures in the 
strata, aided by denudations of these strata ; and, in some in- 
stances, as at Fryop and at Danby, there has been a compound 
fracture, the dale, which is single at its upper end, branching 
into two before it reaches the Esk, and inclosing between the 
branches a delta-shaped hill, detached from the principal chain. 
This phenomenon, together with the steepness of the sides of 
this dale, and the romidness of their upper extremities, must 
wholly set aside the idea that they could be hollowed out by 
the petty rivulets which meander through their rich alluvial 
bottoms. As a proof that the Esk has not hollowed out its bed, 
