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OF SOME NATURAL CURIOSITIES IN THE WESTERN EDGE OF
YORKSHIRE, BY MR. ADAM WALKER, LECTURER IN NATURAL
PHILOSOPHY. TAKEN FROM THE GENERAL EVENING POST, SEPT. 25,
1779.
SIR,
I Here send you an account of a tour I made some time ago
through the mountains and caverns near Settle, which I think
no way inferior to those of Derbyshire.
Nigh the Chapel in the dale, on the north side of
Ingleborough, I met with three caverns that are totally
unlike any in this island, tho' caverns are common in all
limestone countries. The first (nigh the chapel) is a pit
sinking from an even surface about forty yards into the
ground, and is about the same number of yards in diameter.
At the bottom is a deep pool of water, from whence issues a
subterraneous brook, but through so narrow a passage, that
in wet weather, the cavern fills up, and overflows its
brim.- A quarter of a mile above this is another pit, of a
paralellopiped (sic) form, being a chasm between two
perpendicular rocks, and though upwards of forty yards deep,
one may easily leap over it. It seems one of those breaks,
or faults (as miners call 'em) where the regular strata have
been broken, and one part of them has sunk below the other;
for the bands of rock lie pretty horizontal, and in their
fissures are found fossils of very curious genera, shells,
fish-bones, pipy flints, with concretes of shells, stones,
moss, and other vegetables, in one mass. Small screw-like
cylinders, some with holes through, which all effervesce
with an acid, and creep in a plate filled with vinegar, like
those found near Carrickfergus, in Ireland, by the discharge
of their fixt air.
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