The district of which it is the object of the present paper to describe the principal geological features, has within the last few years attracted an extraordinary amount of interest and attention, as well from scientific observers as from those who are always seeking some fresh outlet for the investment of their capital. Until a period so recent as little more than twelve years ago, it was only for its fertile meadows and picturesque scenery of hill and dale, that Cleveland had gained any celebrity; but a metamorphosis so truly marvellous has since that time taken place, that it is already entitled to be associated with the most productive iron-making districts in the United Kingdom, and what, in all probability, will be its future position in that respect I shall not now venture to predict, although present circumstances would seem to indicate that, at no very distant day, the great iron-fields of South Staffordshire and South Wales must give place to their youthful opponent in the north.

The discovery, or more properly speaking, the development of the great ironstone deposits of Cleveland in 1848 has given such a stimulus to the iron manufacture of the district, and indeed, of the country, as has seldom been experienced by any other branch of trade. The present flourishing town of Middlesburgh, which, with its new environs, has a population of nearly twenty thousand, for the most part dependent on the iron trade, was, forty years ago, represented by one solitary farmstead, with a census of five inhabitants: and in like manner have all the surrounding villages in the neighbourhood of the new works and mines multiplied their former dimensions with amazing rapidity.