Page:Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society of London, vol. 31.djvu/332

242 a few bones and teeth were from time to time obtained, including those of the reindeer and aurochs, with a very fine horn-core of the latter animal.

The position of the quarry is curious. It is near the top of the Winnetts, the pass leading from the fertile Vale of Hope to the Cheshire valleys and plains, and very near to the most northern point of the Mountain-limestone of Derbyshire. Immediately to the north are the Yoredales of Mam Tor, the "Shivering Mountain." The beds dip northwards; a fault runs close to the spot. The line of division between the Mountain Limestone and the overlying rocks runs, roughly speaking, to the S.E., and S.W. of this quarry. It has been described as on the dividing-line of the east and west watersheds of the Pennine chain, and just on the western slope (Plant, Manchester Geological Society, April 28th, 1874). This is a mistake, as all the water there and for two miles to the west flows eastwards. There is immediately below, to the west, a trough-like valley, whence there is no surface outlet. All the water disappears into swallows, flows southward for a short distance underground, and is then intercepted by the channel which supplies the torrent in the Speedwell mine, which conducts it in an easterly direction to the Peak Cavern at Castleton, thence flowing into the Derwent, and so to the Trent, not into the Mersey as described.

Close to the quarry are two such water-swallows, which, however, discharge their waters into the Yale of Hope, near to the base of Tre-Cliff. And yet the situation can hardly be said to be on the eastern Pennine slope; it is, more correctly speaking, on the southern slope. The Pennine chain at its southern extremity becomes forked. Kinder Scout and its outliers constitute a range of hills than which there are none higher in England to the south. Going south from them the hills diminish, but at the same time diverge. Kinder Scout is capped by Millstone Grit; and two lines of Millstone-Grit and Yoredale hills run off from it to the S.E. and S.W. Between these two ranges, which are still of considerable height, there is exposed a less elevated range of Mountain Limestone. The highest points of their formation are lower than the Millstone-Grit heights either to north, east, or west.

By degrees all the uplands gradually diminish, until the bold heights of Edale, Castleton, Abney Moor, and Axe Edge, sink away into the wolds of South Derbyshire.

The only rivers of importance in the north of England persevering long in a southerly course are the Derbyshire Derwent, Wye, and Dove. The water-swallows of the Windy-Knoll Quarry and its vicinity discharge their streams into the Derwent; and the water does not turn eastward for any distance till the Derwent falls into the Trent, more than 40 miles from the point in question.

Observation convinced us (and subsequent exploration confirmed our conclusion) that the fissure in which the bones lay was but an offshoot of, or opening into, a sort of rock-basin lying to the north of it and behind the rocks shown in the sketch. A section of the rock would be somewhat thus:—