Handbook for Leeds and Airedale : prepared for the use of the British Association, Leeds, 1890 / edited by L.C. Miall.

Date:
1890
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Handbook for Leeds and Airedale : prepared for the use of the British Association, Leeds, 1890 / edited by L.C. Miall. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    19/156 (page 7)
    CONTRASTS OF VEGETATION IN CRAVEN. Malham abounds in rare plants, and has been a favourite collecting-ground for two hundred years. The effect of soil upon vegetation is nowhere better seen than between Settle and Malham. Here the Mid-Craven fault brings shales and sand- stones against the mountain limestone. On the north are the grey limestones, scantily clothed with bright green turf, which is closely cropped by sheep. The mountain pansy, the purple primrose, the cistus, thyme, and many small and dainty ferns star the slopes, or nestle in the crevices of the rock. To the south are sombre fells, covered with heather and long grasses— sure token of sandstones and shales—soaked with sour moor- land water. Sometimes, when the sun is low, the contrast can be made out at a distance of several miles. THE FOUNDATIONS OF YORKSHIRE. The lowest rocks visible in any part of Yorkshire are Silurian slates. Under Ingleborough the Coniston flags, grits, and limestone, with characteristic fossils, and the Lower Silurian slates are well seen. These old rocks have been contorted, and thrown into ridges and folds, which do not affect the rocks above them. Then they were raised into a land- surface, which remained long above the sea, and was worn into hill and valley. Upon this base the Carboniferous rocks now rest unconformably, the slope of the beds bearing no constant relation to that of the slates beneath. The very lowest bed of the Carboniferous is an irregular layer of con- glomerate, not always present, but sometimes of considerable depth. To this succeeds the great mass of Mountain Lime- stone, which in Airedale is almost undivided. Above the Mountain Limestone come shales with thin limestones, then bed after bed of coarse sandstone with shales and flagstones (Millstone Grit). The Millstone Grit occupies most of the valley between Skipton and Shipley. In the neighbourhood of Shipley the Lower Coal Measures appear on the hill tops, sinking steadily as we pass to the south-east, but so gently,