Page:Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society of London, vol. 25.djvu/156

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
62
PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY.

boniferous Limestone, one branch coming from a cave near Gordale Scar, then flows over the very thick formation of Millstone-grit, reaches the Coal-measures between Shipley and Bingley, and, passing over the Magnesian Limestone and the New Red Sandstone, empties itself into the Humber, or a branch of the Humber, near Goole. The valley-gravel at Leeds is famous for the fine remains of Hippopotamus found in 1852. The bottom of the valley through which the Aire flows is from one-half to one and a half mile wide, and is coated over with a deposit of gravel and rolled boulders of unequal thickness and elevation, consisting principally of limestone at the upper part near Malham and Skipton, and of Millstone-grit and sandstone near Leeds, with some limestone boulders. The Bingley gravel consists of Millstone-grit, sand, rock, and limestone in large percentage. Some boulders of limestone are found near the mouth of the river near Goole; but at Bingley, fourteen miles from Skipton in a direct line, they form a considerable percentage of the whole gravel. Until the Leeds and Liverpool Canal was made between Leeds and Skipton, this valley-gravel was turned over for the purpose of removing the limestone boulders for burning into lime. There are numerous remains of old limestone-quarries and lime-kilns at Bingley, although it is ten miles from the nearest limestone rock.

Fig. 2.—Map of part of the river Aire.

Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society of London, Volume 25, 0156.png

Fig. 2 is a plan of the Aire valley between Bingley and Shipley, showing the lines of sections A B and C D from the sandstone-rocks on each side of the valley. (See Pl. IV. figs. 2 and 3, for details of the sections; and to these I will now refer.)

The section (fig. 4, Pl. IV.) through Ashfield, half a mile east of Bingley, exposes a thick gravel- and boulder-deposit, forming what are called the Old Hills. This gravel has been worked over for the blocks of limestone it contains, leaving an irregular surface.