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Page 252:-
hand was a precipice ten or twelve yards perpendicular, made by
the labour of man, being a quarry of fine large blue slate,
affording an useful and ornamental cover for the houses in the
adjoining parts of Yorkshire, Lancashire, and Westmorland: on the
other hand was the river rolling down from rock to rock, in a
narrow deep chasm, where there was no room for human foot to
tread between the stream and the rugged, high, steep rocks on
each side. Several pieces of the slate were bespangled with
yellow marcasites, of a cubic form and different sizes; others
were gilded over with the various foliages of ferns, pines, oaks,
and other vegetables. This bed of slate runs nearly from south to
north, by this place and the quarry near Thornton-force. Its
length may be traced two or three miles, though about 200 or 300
yards in breadth - and indeed, of good slate, but a few yards
broad. The plain of the stratum is nearly perpendicular to the
horizon, and may afford matter of speculation to the natural
philosopher, as to its cause, whether from some melted and liquid
matter being forced up there at the deluge, or some subsequent
volcano; as it is limestone rock on both the east and west side
of it, and apparently severed assunder by the weight of the
western stratum separating from the above by its inclination to
the vale beneath.- We crossed the river by means of the broken
fragments of rocks, which afforded us their rugged backs above
the surface of the water to tread on. Here we met with a fine
field for our entertainment as botanists. There was the
lady's-slipper, the fly-orchis, rarely to be met with elsewhere,
and many other scarce and curious plants. We crossed over to take
a second view of Thornton-force, on the south side of the
Kingsdale river, and followed its murmuring stream down a deep
glen, fortified with high precipices on each side, to Ingleton;
nor did we think ourselves ill repaid, for all the difficulties
we had to encounter in our road amongst rocks and streams, as
something new and amusing presented itself almost every step we
took.
Ingleton is a pretty village, pleasantly situated on a natural
mount, yet at the bottom of a vale, near the conflux of two
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