OF THE DISTRICT. 
155 
the line of the dale. A dislocation of great amount, causing a down- 
throw to the south, follows the course of Lunedale ; the Greta 
flows in a trough of the strata in all its upper parts; every con- 
siderable stream between the Lune and the Greta flows in the same 
E. by N. direction, or parallel to the dislocation and synclinal axis, 
and nearly in the line of the general dip. 
Admitting that wide valleys were excavated by water streams pro- 
portioned to the magnitude of the effect, and that particular conditions 
of the stratification have directed the course of the stream, it seems 
at first extraordinary that there should be so many angular deviations 
in the course of one valley like Teesdale. Why should the Tees 
be deflected first into the path of the smaller river Greta, and after- 
wards into that of the still smaller stream from Staindrop ? To answer 
this we must in imagination restore the original aspect of this region be- 
fore the deep erosion of powerful waters. It is clear that whatever was 
their origin their effects were not necessarily limited to the present 
valleys : these are but the last effects ; monuments may perhaps be 
found of many previous changes. 
In this particular case I find some remarkable facts leading me 
to offer an opinion which many will think paradoxical, which I ac- 
knowledge to be bold, but believe to be at least not improbable. 
The accompanying chart will shew that in the very line of the Tees- 
dale fault runs the little river of Gilling, dividing the more elevated 
limestone districts north of Richmond from the comparatively lower 
ranges under Gatherley moor. This dislocation, this valley, is merely 
in fact a prolongation of the great fault and valley of Teesdale ; it 
opens at its upper end into the wide denudation round Greta bridge, 
and seems to have served in some ancient period, before the final ad- 
justment of the present valleys to the actual levels of the surface, 
for the passage of water directed by the Teesdale fault. It appears 
to me that along this valley the waters of Teesdale flowed in earlier 
geological periods, and that the actual Tees now flows in the real 
* x 2 
