The Yorkshire Lias

Preface

. It is with great satisfaction that we at last present the work that has occupied our attention for some years. The delay in its publication, after having been so long promised, ha9 been beyond our control ; and we have finally been obliged to undertake it at our own risk. The work appeals to a limited number of the public, viz. geologists and those interested in the Iron Industry of Cleveland ; for such, therefore, it has been written ; and we have done our best, by being as accurate as we know how to be in our statements, to make it worthy of their attention. It contains much detail, all of which cannot be interesting to every one ; but if some portion satisfies the requirements of each, he will, it is hoped, excuse the rest being written for some one else. We cannot hope to have escaped error ; and in the case of the names of fossils, our second Part is sometimes inconsistent with the first : in such instances the former is to be taken as a correction on the latter.

With respect to the map, we may say that no details have been omitted which would appear on the 1-inch scale, from which it is an accurate reduction ; and if reenlarged it will give the proper

PREFACE.

. VI lines (according to our judgment) on the original scale. Where the lines are uniformly curved or straight, as, for example, between Easingwold and Barton, it may be taken that we possess no very accui-ate information, owing to the covering of the underlying rocks, and the absence of workings ; other wise the lines are well established. The assistance we have received is acknowledged in the place where we have used it ; but we think we ought especially to acknowledge the kindness of Mr. Simpson, the Curator of Whitby Museum, who has per mitted us to examine his types, though we have often thereby come to a different opinion as to their interpretation. CONTENTS. Tart I.— GEOLOGY. Chapter p0„„ I. General Range of Liassic Strata on the Continent and British Isles 1 II. Literature of the Yorkshire Lias 5 III.

Range, Extent, and General Characters of the Yorkshire Lias 12 IV. Relations of the Lias and Inferior Oolite 18 V. The Rhætic Series aud the Relations of the Lias with the Keuper 30 VI. Zone of Ammonites planorbis 38 VII. Zone of Ammonites anyulatus 46 VIII. Zone of Ammonites Bucklandi 54 IX. Zone of Ammonites oxynotus. 72 X. Zone of Ammonites Jamesoni 78 XI. Zone of Ammonites capricornus 89 XII. Zone of Ammonites margaritatus 108 XIII. The Ironstone, or Zone of Ammonites spinatus 118 XIV. Historical Sketch of the Discovery and Industrial Application of the Cleveland Main Seam 157 XV. Zone of Ammonites annulaties 168 XVI. The Jet-rock Series, or the Zone of Ammonites serpentinus 173 XVII. Zone of Ammonites communis, or Alum-Shale 181 XVIII. Zone of Ammonites jurcnsis 190 XIX. Stratigraphies Phenomena 192 XX.

Conclusions I HNTENT8. VIII Part U.— PALÆONTOLOGY. P.p. Reptilia, by J. F. Blake 243 Pisces, „ „ 255 Cephalopoda, ,, 261 Gasteropoda, by R. Tate 331 Lamellibranchiata, by R. Tate 357 Palliobranchiata, „ ,, 413 Insecta, by J. F. Blake 426 Crustacea, „ 427 Annelida, by R. Tate 430 Echinodermatn , by J. F. Blake 439 Actinozoa, „ „ 44* Porifera &c, ,, „ 44g Foraminifera, „ „ 441,1 Plahtæ, by R. Tate LIST OF ILLUSTBATIONS. Page Fig. 1. Section of planorbis-beds, Cliff 41 2. Plan of the Rocks at Redcar 57 3. Contorted flaggy Sandstones of the margarifatus-be&s near Saltburn 111 4. Section of the Ironstone Series at Boulby 132 5. Faults in Eston Moor 108 6,7. Sections of Hummersea Fault 200 8. Section across the Ironstone-field of Dunsdale and Tocketts 205 9. View of the Rocks at Staithes, looking south 239 Frontispiece.

View of Huntcliff from tbe North-west. Opposite page 124. Two Plates of comparatiTe sections of the Ironstone series, along the northern outcrop, and along the coast towards the south. At the end. General Sections and Plan of Robin Hood's Bay, on two folding plates. b PAET I GEOLOGY

Chapter I. General

range op liassic strata ox the continent and BRITISH ISLES. Beneath the Oolitic rocks which form the hills of the midland counties, and resting upon the red marls and sandstones which spread out in the great central plain of England, is a series of blue clays and shales of considerable thickness, interstratified with beds of sandstone, ironstone, and limestone. To this series the name of Lias has been assigned, a local term supposed to be a corruption of " layers," in allusion to the evenness of its bedding in many localities. From the number of its valuable contents — ironstone, jet, alum shale, cement, and limestones — it is of considerable industrial importance, while the quantity and variety of its fossils have always attracted to it a more than ordinary share of the attention of geologists, especially as it presents to us in England the first full series of organic remains of the Secondary period.

Beds of this age and character, though not so continuous over large areas as many other formations, are widely spread throughout Europe, and are found also in India. Their most easterly known European occurrence is in the Crimea (see Baily, Q. J. Geol. Soc. vol. xie. 1858) ; but throughout the rest of Russia they appear to be wanting. The next appearance coming westwards is in Hungary, where most of the subdivisions occur in the neighbourhood of Funfkirchen, as de scribed by Peters, and the lower part in the north-western portion. Near Vienna we have the eastern limit of a vast range of Liassic rocks, which spread westward without intermission as far as the Vorarlberg, and form the northern slopes of the Austrian, Bavarian, and Rhætian Alps ; and although no complete treatise on the Lias of this district has been written, several important memoirs have thrown light upon various parts of it.

Of these we may mention : — ■ Hauer's ' Cephalopoda of the N.E. Alps,' and other works by the same author ; Giimbel's ' Baycrische Alpengebiete,' with a largo geological map of Bavaria ; Suess and Dittmar on the Hallstadt B fossils ; Stolickza on those of Hierlatz ; Schafhiiutl's ' Sud-Bayerns Lethæa Geognostica,' and many other smaller works. Corresponding to this area and bounding on the N.W. the basin of which it is the southern limit, there is another long strip of Lias, nearly continuous in a N.E. direction from Bale to Coburg, and forming part of the Swabian alps. In this district it has had many historians, the earliest memoir dating many years back. The chief of them is undoubtedly Quenstedt, the materials for whoso work, ' Der Jura,' are taken from this area. Another important but anti quated work on this range is Zieten's ' Petrefacten Wiirtcmbcrgs,' not to mention older works.

Being the only area in S. Germany in which Liassic beds occur, all the German geologists who have given their attention to rocks of Secondary age have naturally contributed to our knowledge of the formation ; so that of all continental loca lities this is known the best, both as to its stratigraphy and its organic remains. It is here that many of the subdivisions have been first established, and the majority of the fossils have been recognized and named. To give a list of tho writings which have enriched tho literature of the formation would be to transcribe the names of tho works of the greater number of German geologists ; yet we cannot perhaps pass over unmentioned that of Oppel, who was one of the foremost. There is one outlying area, now included in the Ger man empire, but formerly belonging to the kingdom of Hanover, to the north of the main mass, to which little attention had been paid till within the last few years, the chief works being] Seebach's ' Hanoversche Jura,' Bronn's ' Untere Jura im N.W.-Deutsehland,' and papers by Schlonbach, Emerson, and Bornemann.

The general work also of Romer contains some account of it. Coming to France, we find corresponding to the main Swabian range one nearty parallel, but with a more northerly direction, sweeping round from the N.W. side of the Jura mountains by Nancy to Luxembourg. Here, too, tho Lias has been well described, especially as to its lower part, chiefly by Terquem in the neighbourhood of Metz and Hettange, and by Chapuis and Dewalque nearer to Luxembourg. This range is really the north-easterly termination of a longer one that stretches right across France to the Bay of Biscay ; but on this part of its course comparatively little has been written, excepting of its eastern end, on which we have the admirable monograph of Martin on the Infralias of the Cote d'Or. Branching off from this and forming the southern boundary of the central plateau of France is another range, carrying the Lias in scattered patches in a semicircular course to the Rhone.

The more eastern portion of this has been recently illustrated in a series of most valuable monographs by Dumortier, lately completed, and now forming one of tho most important of the modern additions to our knowledge of the palæontology of this period. Between this, again, and the German area are some scattered patches described by Favre in his ' Terrain Liassique de Savoie,' also the Swiss Lias whose organic remains have been illustrated by Renevier and Ooster ; while to the west the region of the Aveyronnais is well illustrated bv Revnes, GENERAL EANGE OF THE LIAS. ■whose works arc specially valuable, as he recognizes the division into zones, and shows how far they hold in his district. Over all these ranges in S. Germany and Franco, as well as in England, it has a general historian in Oppel, though over so wide an area it is impossible to expect much of details.

Outlying from these ranges to the south, Italy supplies an im portant area in the Lombardian Alps, where tbe lower beds chiofly have been illustrated by Stoppani, in his ' Paleontologio Lombardc,' and by Catullo, — and another in the Vaudois Alps, described by Renevier ; while, still further south, beds of this age around the Gulf of Spezzia have been described by Capellini and others, and in Spain and Minorca by Haime and De Verneuil. Separated from all these areas by space, but intimately connected with each by organic remains, is another tract, which commences in Normandy and (crossing in all probabibty the English Channel) reaches Britain on the coast of Dorset, and has a continuous range till it ends in York shire. We are well acquainted with the Norman area by the labours of tho two Deslongschamps.

The Lias enters England grandly, occurring first in the magnificent cliffs of Lyme Regis, surpassing even those of the coast of Yorkshire for the variety and novelty of thoir organic remains. This, however, would appear to be the northern extremity of a basin which is now nearly washed away, as it soon loses its character inland, and in the neighbourhood of Ilminster, scarcely twenty miles to the north, it is replaced by rubbly redeposited beds, formed of the broken pieces of Liassic rocks that have disappeared, which, though in the highest degree interesting and with a fauna of marvellous beauty, yet show neither the stratigraphical completeness nor the variety of fossils of Lyme Regis. The Ilminster beds have been indefatigably explored by Charles Moore, Esq., who has obtained from them the most complete invertebrate fauna yet known in this age, as well as remarkable fishand reptile-remains.

Though each fossil from Lyme Regis has always attracted its share of attention, yet a general account of the formation in that locality is much needed, the only modern memoir being that of Mr. Day, which was published in 1863, in the Quart. Journ. of the Geol. Soc, and contains complete accounts of the sections of the middle and upper beds observable on the coast. Mr. Moore's chief contributions are contained in a paper on the Middle and Upper Lias of the South west of England, published in the Somersetshire Archæol. and Nat. Hist. Soc. Proceedings for 1865-6, and another " On Abnormal Conditions of Secondary Deposits," in the Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc. for 1 867. In these are contained our most recent information with regard to the southern area. Coming northwards to Bath, we find only the Lower Lias and part of the Middle Lias represented ; but these spread out to the north of Bristol, and we have the whole series present in the Chel tenham district.

Various writers have contributed to our knowledge of the Bristol district ; but no very complete account has appeared. The Lias about Cheltenham has been well described by Dr. Wright, b2 THE TOEKSHIRE LIAS. in a communication to the Geological Society in 1860, winch, how ever, is not confined to that neighbourhood, aud which illustrates Oppel's division of the series into Ammonite zones. Tho majority of these zones we have adopted in tho present work. Ho has also published a controversial paper on the uppor limit of tho Lias, which will be discussed in tbe sequel. An older work on the same area is Buckmau's ' Geology of Cheltenham,' 1845. Tho most recent con tribution to one part of the series is a paper by one of us in the Quart. Journ. G. S. for 1870, " On the Junction beds of the Lower and Middle Lias."

From tho area of Bristol and Cheltenham there runs a westward spur of tbe lowest beds of Lias — reaching south of the Severn to Watchet, but to the north stretching beyond Bridgcnd in Glamorganshire. The Quarterly Journal also contains papers on this region by Dawkins, Tawney, Moore, &c. North-easterly from Cheltenham the Lias takes a continuous course through the midland counties Warwickshire, Leicestershire, Nottingham, and Lincolnshire. Throughout this range it has met with comparatively few observers, papers by Beesley, Brodie, &c. on Oxfordshire and Warwickshire being the only recent ones. Lincolnshire especially, except in a limited locality (Marton), is almost entirely unknown, and promises to be an interesting field from the few fossils gathered there. Mr. Cross, however, has recently described the Liassic beds at Frodingham (Quart.

Journ. Geol. Soc. vol. xxxi. 1875, p. 115). From Lincolnshire the Lias crosses into Yorkshire, where its range and character become the subject of the present work. North of this point it met with but in scattered patches — in Shropshire, Cumberland, the eastern coast and western isles of Scotland, and the north of Ireland, the last three localities being severally described by Portloek, Geikie, Judd, Br}'co, and Tate. It will be noticed that with respect to the English Lias our information consists almost entirely of memoirs relating to various portions of it in particular districts, and that no complete account of the Liassic beds as exhibited in any locality has yet appeared. How far the Yorkshire series may be considered typical for the rest of England is a question which may better be considered at the end than at the beginning of this work ; but we may at once state that the whole series is at least so far fully developed as to enable us to illustrate the whole series from its oldest to its newest stratum. LITERATURE OF THE YORKSHIRE LIAS. 5

Chapter II. Literature Of The Yorkshire Lias

I. Chronological History of the principal Geological Memoirs. In giving an account of what has been already written on our subject, we may leave out of consideration those notices which only occur casually in general works, and those in which particular fos sils from these strata are described ; the latter will be dealt with in the Palæontological section. 1818. The first notice is that of the Rev. G. Young, in his ' History of Whitby,' in which ho describes the alum strata of the vicinity of that town ; but the importance of this geological contri bution is overshadowed by the same author publishing, four years after, a fall account of the geology of the whole Yorkshire coast. 1821. Smith published a geological map of Yorkshire, but by an error threw no light on the Lias. 1822. In this year appeared Young and Bird's ' Geological Survey of the Yorkshire Coast.' In this the whole series receives the name of the alum shale, though it is said to correspond to the Lias of the southern counties.

A very fair description of the various members of the series, as seen on the coast section, is given, the Upper Lias receiving the name of main bed of alum shale ; the ironstones of the Middle Lias are described, but only as thin bands as they appear on the shore, under the name of the Kettleness beds ; the beds be low these receive the title Staithes beds ; and the Lower Lias appears as the lowest alum shale. The descriptions of sections seen are accurate and useful, and the information conveyed is considerable. The same authors attempted a map of the interior ; and though they profess to have visited every accessible section, the resulting map is entirely an imaginary one and of no value whatever. They also gave an account of the fossil remains ; but their figures are rough and scarcely recognizable, so that the names they bestowed can only in a few instances be retained. 1826.

Prof. Sedgwick published a paper in the ' Annals of Philo sophy ' " On the Classification of the Strata which appear on the Yorkshire Coast," and, following the description of the strata as given by Young and Bird, finds it necessary still to prove that the alum shale series (as the whole is still called) is equivalent to the Lias of other districts. 1826. "An account of the Strata north of the Humber near Cave," by the Rev. W. Vernon (afterwards Harcourt),in the 'Annals of Philosophy.' In this paper the range of the Lias at its most southerly appearance, with that of other strata, is traced with con siderable accuracy on a small geological map, which has not yet been improved. He also gives a few valuable notes, showing that ho had seen what we now know represents the Cleveland ironstone, and records its existence at Everthorpe, where it can no longer bo seen. 1828.

In this year Young and Bird published the second edition of the ' Geological Survey,' in which they add nothing to tho stra tigraphical information, but describo several new fossils unnoticed in their previous edition. 1829. Phillips's ' Illustrations of tho Geology of Yorkshire,' part 1 , " The Yorkshire Coast." This well-known work, embracing all the Secondary formations of tbe county, has been, up to this time, tho chief authority on the Liassic strata ; in it is given a description of them as displayed upon the coast, with sections at various places, and scattered notices of thoir inland occurrence. In this work tho Lias is first divided into the Uppor, Middle, and Lower, and full lists of fossils given from each of these divisions. Though, how ever, the main outlines of the present classification were thus laid down, the additional materials in the shape of new fossils were not so large, as only twenty-seven previously unknown are figured, and unfortunately not described, which loaves thoir identification in some cases doubtful ; of tho remainder recorded, forty-seven are adopted from Sowerby's ' Mineral Conchology,' twenty-five from Young and Bird, and six from other sources. 1835 saw the second edition of this work, which, as nothing was added in tho interval, may bo regarded as a reprint of the first edition. 1836.

In vol. v. of the second series of the ' Geological Transac tions ' were published two papers : — The first by Louis Hunton, " Accompanying remarks to a section of the Upper Lias and Marlstone of Yorkshiro, showing the limited vertical range of the species of Ammonites and other Testacea, with their value as geological tests." This section was that exposed in the alum works at Boulby and the Middle Lias beds exposed in the cliff beneath them, termed by him the " Ironstone " and " Marl stone" series. He hero describes the strata in order, and states what fossils are found in each, and tho range of them from bed to bed. The paper contains very valuable information upon a limited portion of the series, and is the first attempt to do what we have undertaken in the present work, namely to localize the fossils in their various horizons.

In the second paper by W. C. Williamson, " On the distribution of fossil remains on the Yorkshiro coast," the samo work is at tempted for tho whole of tho Lias, and the more easily discovered facts are accurately laid down, aud tho series of beds divided into (1) the Lower Lias, (2) the Marlstone, (3) the Upper Lias or alum shale — drawing the lines at the same horizons as had been done bv Phillips in 1829-35. ' Seventeen years now elapsed before any further contribution was made to our knowledge ; but the next was an important one. In LITERATURE Otf THE YORKSHIRE LIAS. 7 Young and Bird's work tho accompanying geological map was, as far as the Lias is concerned, purely imaginary, and threw no light whatever on its range; in Phillips's work the map, though small (only the size of a quarto page), was more accurate, and gave the general features of the range of the Lias with tolerable correctness ; but in 1853 Phillips published a large geological map of Yorkshire, which has been, since its appearance, the only guide relied on by all map-makers.

In it the roads and other such landmarks are omitted, and its value is deteriorated by the bad topography ; no dislocations of strata are inserted ; and the Lias is mapped as a whole, with only partial indications of the presence of Middle Lias beds. It is thus by no means an exhaustive map ; but it is in the highest degree suggestive. It has been the basis of our own survey, as it has told us where to look for Lias, and where, if we look, we shall find none though we might expect it ; and though we are able to correct many details, especially in the northern part, yet on the whole we cannot but admire its near approach to fact. 1856. Dr. Albert Oppel, who in his thirty-two short years of life made himself a name and contributed a vast amount of knowledge to geological science, had been led, from his study of the German Lias, to divide the whole into parts, which he called zones, and which were characterized by particular species of Ammonites, and generally by a special fauna (which zones have been found most useful, and we retain them in the present work), in this year published his ' Juraformation Englands, Frankreichs und siid-westlichen Deutschlands.' In this he gave a general view of tho various zones ; but having, in order to render his work complete, visited Yorkshire, he gives incidentally throughout his first part, which relates to the Lias, various notices which have the effect of comparing tho Yorkshire Lias with that of other parts, showing the existence of these zones in our area, and, in the palæontological part, noticing the fossils he found in the various zones in this country.

His work, though a general one, thus laid the basis of the foundation on which we now build ; and ours is the complete (as far as we can make it) carrying out of the ideas then promulgated, and shown to hold good for Yorkshire. 1857. Morley, John, " Cleveland Ironstone." ' Transactions of North of England Institute of Mining Engineers, Newcastle,' vol. v. pp. 165-219. In this paper are recorded the most material facts connected with the development of the ironstone trade of the northern part of the Cleveland district. The chief topics are : — the ironworks in the northern counties prior to the discovery of the ironstone, and to the application thereof in the north part of Cleveland ; the history of the discovery of ironstone ; a sketch of the principal mines opened out since 1850, accompanied by tabular sections of the ironstone series at each place, and including notices of the top seam ; analyses of the stone of the main and top seams ; concluding with an account of the blast-furnaces erected since 1846, and a few facts connected with the possible extension of the Coal-measures of Durham into North Yorkshire. 1858. rkillips contributed a paper to tho Geological Society, entitled " Comparative Sections in the Oolitic Ironstono bones ot Yorkshire."

The greater part of this is occupied with the Lower Oolites, their character and range, incidentally throwing light on the upper line of junction of the Lias. He also gives three sections of the latter, at Eston, Grosmont, and Feliskirk— tho last the most important, as it was obtained by a boring of which this is the only reliable record. 1860. The volume of the Geological Society's Journal for this year contains two papers by Dr. Wright, of Cheltenham, both of whicb have partial reference to the Lias of Yorkshire. The first is " On the Subdivisions of the Inferior Oolite in the South of England compared with the equivalent beds of that formation on the York shire coast." In 1856 Dr. Wright described the sandy beds, con taining a large number of Ammonites, which in the south of England overlie the true Lias clays which had been formerly classed with the Inferior Oolite ; and these he proposed to incorporate with the Lias under the name of Upper Lias Sands, on the ground of the identity of their Cephalopoda with species reckoned Liassic by con tinental authors.

In this paper of 1856 he makes no allusion to Yorkshire ; but in the paper now under review he describes certain beds at Blea Wyke in Yorkshire, and correlates them with those he had thus called Liassic. We shall, in the sequel, give our reasons for considering them to belong to the Inferior Oolite, so that we do not regard them as really belonging to our subject ; but as they are held to be Liassic by many geologists on the authority of Dr. Wright, it becomes our duty to discuss them. The second paper is "On the zone of Avicula contorta and the Lower Lias of the south of England." This is the first attempt to apply the system of Ammonite zones, originated by Dr. Oppel, to the Lias beds of England by any native geologist ; and though it has reference chiefly to the south of England, with which Dr. Wright was most familiar, yet it contains scattered notices of the zones, as far as the Lower Lias is concerned, as they are seen on the coast at Robin Hood's Bay.

And here we must note that the line of demarkation between the Lower and Middle Lias has been shifted since the time of Phillips, or, rather, that two different lines are drawn by two sets of geologists : the one set, including the Geological Survey, Phillips, and Simpson, draw the line at the base of the limestones and sandstones of the Middle Lias, which is thus a lithological line ; the other set, including Dr. Oppel, Dr. Wright, and ourselves, draw it further down, in the middle of the series of clays, where no very marked lithological change takes place, but there is a break in the continuity of the fauna, as clearly shown by one of us in a paper in the Geological Society's Journal for 1870 ; so that this is a palæontological line. 1861. Jos. Bewick, 'A Geological Treatise on the district of Cleveland, in North Yorkshire, its Ferruginous Deposits, Lias, and Oolites.' This work covered to a great extent the ground which We would now occupy.

Like ourselves, he attempted to give the range of the Lias beds by means of a map, with especial reference LITERATURE OF THE YORKSHIRE LIAS. 9 to the ironstone strata. He described tho position of the various subdivisions, and gave accurate accounts of the most important sections. It might seem therefore that he had done all that was needful for the Yorkshire Lias ; but an examination of his work shows that it is not so. In the first place, he was not a geologist, but a mining engineer, and he examined the country solely with mining objects in view, and thus failed to see it with that compre hensiveness that is needful ; and on its palæontology he threw no light at all ; and the whole work was limited to the Cleveland district. With regard to the map we cannot speak highly : though on it was attempted more than on Phillips's map of 1853, namely the tracing of the subdivisions of Lower, Middle, and Upper Lias, yet in reality far less was accomplished ; for all that is correct in it had been more correctly laid down in Phillips's map by means of his notices of where the Middle Lias occurred, and all the additions or differences are purely imaginary ; and in every case we havo found, where comparison was possible, that Bewick was wrong and Phil lips was right.

This map is, therefore, worse than useless; it is a step backward and actually misleading, as far as its outline topo graphy aUows it to lead at all; and if any one were to take this map as a guide to the position of workable ironstone, or its amount, they would be sadly mistaken. But though we speak thus of the map, which represents what Mr. Bewick has not seen, we must bear testimony to the accuracy with which he describes what he has seen, which, indeed, has sometimes been of use to us. 1865-8. Mr. Simpson published, in a small handbook called 'A Guide to the Geology of the Yorkshire Coast,' " a section of the Yorkshire Lias " as seen between Whitby and Peak. Its chief value is its localizing the various fossils before named by the author. It consists of a description of every bed of the Lias, with their respec tive thicknesses, and the included fossils.