10 THE MOORLAND DISTRICT. 
one of the branches of Eskdale, and, after passing by an obscure course 
across the moors, reaches Hood hill, Coxwold, and Owlston. It now 
becomes decidedly oolitic in the lower part, and slaty in the upper part , 
and these distinct portions of the rock, separated by sandstone and a layei 
of pale blue clay, range by Brandsby, Terrington, and Crambe, to the 
quarries about Westow, and are continued more obscurely between Lep- 
pington and Acklam, to Kirby Underdale, where they pass under the chalk 
hills The oolitic part of the group re-appears from beneath the wolds at 
Sancton, and ranges by Newbald, Everthorpe, Ellerker, and EUoughton, 
to the Humber, near Brough ferry. The Lincolnshire oolite, beyond this 
river, is a continuation of the same rocks increased in thickness. 
On the sea-coast, and in the eastern moorlands, these calcareous strata 
are much debased by admixture of sand, argillaceous matter, and ironstone, 
so as to be very indifferent limestone, and very unlike the usual appear- 
ance of oolite. But in the western part of the same district their aspect 
changes ; the rock becomes more united in itself, and more separated 
fromthe sandstones about it, and assumes its true character of oolite. ie 
upper fissile portion, at Brandsby and Terrington, appears to agree re- 
markably in structure, composition, and organic remains, with the slaty 
stone of Wittering heath and Collyweston in Northamptonshire, and 
Stonsfield near Oxford, which was referred by Professor Buckland, and 
geologists generally, to the forest marble. Mr. Lonsdale’s recent re- 
searches have, however, proved it to belong to the lower portion of the 
Bath oolite. This slaty stone seldom occurs in a satisfactory mannei on 
the sea-coast, and yet is not entirely deficient : it may be examined at the 
northern extremity of the point called White Nab, near Scarborough. 
The sandstones and shades, (No. 11,) now to be noticed, which 
rest unon the oolitic limestone, have a general resemblance to those 
which cover the dogger. The lower part consists chiefly of thick, irre- 
gular strata of sandstone, often interspersed with nodules of ironstone 
and layers of shale, containing small and very confined seams of coal, 
and local deposits of fossil plants. Above, is a thick deposit of dark 
and light-coloured shale, with alternations of tlnn standstones. 
