Nathaniel John Winch

“ On the Links south of Bamborough Castle, and on Holy Island, N.— July the 19th and 20th, 1804.
On the Links at Holy Island I have noticed thousands of the Dwarf Centaury, without finding one plant approximating in the shape of its leaves to the Common Centaury, even whose variety β, the Broad leaved Centaury of Smith, still retains its elliptical leaves on our sea beach; those of Erythraea littoralis, on the other hand, are with us invariably linear, but obtuse. Still cultivation alone can determine whether it should rank as a species. ”

“ In a district comprising such varieties of soil and aspect as the counties of Northumberland and Durham, owing to the height of their hills, their extent of sea-coast, and to their numerous and variously arranged strata, the botanist is naturally led to expect a copious and diversified Flora. ”

“ A hollow space formed like a basin or trough is filled with the limestone. [3] The length of this from east to west is about a mile; the breadth from north to south four hundred yards, the depth seventy feet. The beds pass over the ninety-fathom-dyke; which has occasioned in them no confusion or dislocation; so that there can be little hazard in stating that the beds of the magnesian limestone belong to a more recent formation than those of the Coal-field. The limestone has been quarried across its whole breadth, and a numerous set of thin strata are thus exhibited to view. ”

“ The Burnet Rose is a shrub of a very diminutive growth on the sea beach (var. γ) , but rises to a tall bush in woods and hedges distant from the coast. It is not very common, but occasionally to be found even in our sub-alpine vallies; and in the woods bordering the Lakes of Cumberland and Westmoreland. It may be met with about Newcastle, Corbridge, the Crag Lake, and on the coast at Holy Island, N. At Hebburn Quay, on the links near South Shields, at Norton; also in Weardale and Teesdale, D.
3. R. gracilis. Tall Bristly Rose. Flower stalks bristly, generally bracteated. ”

“ Galena has been found in a dyke in Willington colliery, and a small string of the same ore has been observed in the main dyke at Whitley. A salt spring issues from a slip in Birtley colliery.
The dykes are an endless source of difficulty and expense to the coal owner, throwing the seams out of their levels, and filling the mines with water and fire damp. At the same time they are not without their use; when veins are filled, as is often the case, with stiff clay, numerous springs are damned up and brought to the surface ”

“ Yet whilst we judge it illiberal to dwell for a moment on the unavoidable defects of an undertaking of such novelty and extent, we may be permitted to hope that our tardy emulation will be atoned by some improvement in the plan, and by much industry evinced in more completely filing up the outline they have so ably sketched. From societies constituted like yours, much is to be expected towards the accomplishment and perfection of such a work ”

“ Hooker justly remarks, "the experience of a hundred years has proved to every unprejudiced mind, that no system can be compared to that of the immortal Swede, for the facility with which it enables any one hitherto unpractised in botany to arrive at a knowledge of the genus and species of a plant." And as the chief value of these memoranda will be in assisting those who are commencing their botanic career, an enumeration of genera and species adapted to their line of study was to be preferred. ”

“ Hornblende rock is by no means uncommon among these hills Housy crag, which rises above the farm house near Langley ford, in the valley between Hedgehope and Cheviot, is composed of a coarse grained variety of this rock, closely allied to the porphyry, and the perpendicular cliffs of Hellhole on the opposite side of the Cheviot consist also of the same rock.
The only metallic ores known to exist in this district are, bog iron-ore, which is found in the bottoms of morasses, and red ochre with nodules of hematite from a small vein traversing the rocks above Langley-ford. ”

“ This Lecidea, under one Appearance, agrees pretty well with Acharius's Character of L. orosthea; under another, it is certainly his Parmelia squamulosa; and under a third, without doubt, it is Parmelia privigna of that Author. Its Apothecia really become the Crust of squamulosa and privigna, and produce other Apothecia, which, at their first Appearance, resemle those of the Endocarpon; and the Plant therefore probably has passed, with some Lichenists at least, under different Forms, as so many different Species of that Genus ”

“ The average dip of the coal measures is 1 inch in 20; but this inclination is by no means uniform in every part of the district. Thus that seam of coal called the High Main which lies buried at Jarrow, under 160 fathoms of beds of stone, soon rises to the clay in a north-easterly direction, and bassets out in the cliffs between Cullercoats and Tynemouth. In its north-westerly range it reaches Benwell hills, and at Pontop nearly 18 miles due west of the sea shore at Sunderland it is met with at 38 fathoms from the surface. ”

“ To these must be added, the almost insurmountable difficulty that the various species or varieties pass by insensible degrees into each other, and though at first sight, no two Roses may appear more dissimilar than Rosa canina on the one hand, and Rosa villosa on the other, yet links can easily be furnished to form a complete chain between them. Rosa canina is well known as a robust growing bush, with hooked prickles, smooth oval fruit and shining leaves. In Rosa sarmentacea the plant becomes slender in habit, and with us its leaves generally assume a glaucous hue. ”

“ HOGG's valuable Tract, [7] appended to the second edition of Brewster's History of Stockton, numerous habitats have been extracted, for the south-eastern corner of the county of Durham is propitious to the growth of several southern plants which here terminate their range towards the north. Their appearance on this side of the Tees is partly owing to the shelter afforded by the Cleveland hills, but more especially by the warm and fertile soil originating from the decomposition of the Red Sandstone rocks, prevalent in the lower part of this vale. ”

“ The specimens are generally intersected by veins of iron pyrites and slate-clay. Some buildings stand upon the bank out of which this mineral was quarried, and the proprietor to save them from being undermined has built a wall close to the face of the rock; so that satin-spar is no longer to be procured, and is become a scarce mineral.
There are few parts of the Lead-mine district in which coal is not to be found, though the seams cannot be compared in magnitude to those of the Newcastle formation. ”

“ Then again there is another class of Botanists more injurious than these, they too are generally men who set their faces against any increase of genera, but who, at the same time, consider that the most trifling difference in a leaf, a serrature, or a hair, should constitute a specific distinction : and to such an extravagant pitch is this system now carried in certain genera — take Rosa, Rubus, Salix, Myosotis, no two persons are or can be agreed on what constitutes a species and what not, in such tribes. ”

“ The coal-seams and the rocky strata which together constitute the coal-formation of Newcastle and Sunderland, are in part covered by the magnesian limestone, and rest upon the lead-mine measures. They occupy a hollow, or trough, of which the extreme length from the Alklington colliery, near the Coquet, in the north, to Cockfield, in the neighbourhood of West-Auckland, is 58 miles; and the breadth, from Bywill on the Tyne, to the sea-shore, is 24 miles. ”

“ The beds of shale or plate (as it is called) are very numerous, and are found alternating with the rocks of limestone and sandstone. They are seldom so thick as 7 or 8 fathoms; but the plate sill, which is the lowest bed in the section below that of Dufton, measures 10 fathoms. Shale alternating with sandstone in thin layers sometimes forms beds of considerable thickness, (see section of Hely field,) which are called grey beds: when containing laminæ of hardstone and iron pyrites it is called a girdle bed. Iron pyrites is found imbedded in the shales in great abundance, and in various forms ”

“ This is owing in a great measure to the altered and degenerate state in which many appear when growing out of their natural localities, but more particularly to the slow mode of increase common to many of the crustaceous species. I have observed that, after the lapse of ten years, specimens of Lecanora atra, portions of which I had chipped from a stone wall, had not again formed the circular patches of crust, which is their natural mode of growth. ”

“ It is well ascertained that the magnesian limestone of this district, as is the case with that of Derbyshire and Yorkshire, rests upon the coal-measures. No coal mine however has yet been won in Northumberland or Durham, by sinking a shaft through the limestone, although the workings of some collieries situated on its western boundary have been carried underneath it. It is therefore a matter of great importance to those who have royalties within its limits to know under what thickness of limestone the coal measures are buried ”

“ In nothing is more consideration now required than to determine what of new genera ought to be adopted and what rejected. Had you and I begun our botanic career when old Dickson was in his prime, we should have had the same aversion to the Hedwigian improvements which he had, but which have nevertheless tended so very much to the advancement of muscology. ”

“ Anthony's, and at an adjoining colliery, the Low Main coal is found at 59 fathoms below the High Main; but though the seam proved to be 61⁄2 feet thick, the workings of it were abandoned as unprofitable; the coal being extremely fragile, and the mines very subject to the fire damp. On the south side of the Tyne, at Felling, Tyne Main, and Gateshead Fell, the quality of this coal is very much improved, and under the name of the Hutton Main, it forms one of the most valuable seams on the Wear. ”

“ A perpendicular fissure, the sides of which are quite smooth, divides the stony contents of the dyke into two equal parts, and when perforated was found to be filled with soft clay and water. On the south side the coal-measures preserve their usual dip of 5° until close to the dyke: on the northern from the distance of 150 yards they rise to the dyke at an angle of 20°, but at the distance of 600 yards they regain their accustomed position. In some parts the coal is deteriorated in quality to the distance of 20 yards from the dyke ”

“ Basalt occurs in the mining field either between the regular sills, when it is considered as one of them, or, as it should seem, in overlying positions. The great whin sill in the lead mine sections does not consist of the whin of the colliery sinkers, but is really a basalt, coarse-grained in texture, and composed of white felspar and black hornblende, the latter mineral predominating, and giving to the rock a dark greenish grey colour. ”

“ Masses of blue coralloid limestone, the produce of the lead-mine district, are found at the surface at Cullercoats above the magnesian limestone. Similar blocks are found dispersed over the other formations.
Masses of close-grained sandstone occur every where in like manner.
Masses of hard black basalt are found every where in abundance. From this stone the ancient inhabitants of Britain formed the heads of their battle-axes, which the people call Celts. They resemble in shape the tomahawks brought from the South Sea islands. ”