Geological Ohfervatiom on the Picinity ij Hull and Sevif^, ftSy 



-hear this place. From the regular falling of the cliff on the average of the lafl; fifty years* 

 this fpot may have been uncovered within the prefent century. 



The fame maybe prefumed at various places along the coaft, where this fubmarine woodj 

 &CC. are found within a ftiort diftance from the cliffs that have been for many years gradually 

 wafting. In this fubmarine bog have been foUnd the horns of the red deer, the head of 

 an animal of the ox kind) oak, fir, and hazel j the nuts of the laft quite perfeft when firft 

 taken out. This wood is here called, not unaptly, Noah's Wood. A few years ago the 

 trunk of a large tree was taken out, evidently cut off at both ends, and hollowed out fo as to 

 form a canoe capable of carrying a man; it was fo perfe6i: when found, that I am credibly 

 informed it would have anfwered that purpofe. I have alfo feen the head of an inftrument 

 refembling an axe, formed of one ftone ; round one end a groove has been hollowed out, in 

 which the handle of the inftrument has been twifted — in the fame manner as the blackfmiths 

 do at this day round fome of their tools — and the other is wrought to a fine edge. 



Another circumftance which irtclines me to believe that this part of Holdernefs lies upon 

 this moor earth is, that a mile from the fea, in finking a well, the workmen met with a 

 boggy earth, which emitted fo noxious a ftench that they efeaped fuffocation with difficulty: 

 this was at the level of the fea. 'From the nature of the ground, which I have called alluvial^ 

 confifting of fpecimens of every kind of rock, from Flamborough-Head to the North of 

 Scotland, I have been led to conclude the whole of that part has been brought there by 

 fome great irruption of the Atlantic Ocean, and precipitated upon the furface of this vegeta- 

 ble mould, 



I have alfo been of opinion, that there was a time when this country was inhabited at the 

 level of this morafs, before this irruption of the fea, and that the Rhine and the Humber metj 

 and mixed their waters, without the interference of the German Ocean, The manner in ■ 

 which the warp land has been formed from the Humber, fince the ocean retired within its 

 prefent limits, is very obvious : it is, at prefent, the pradlice in fome parts of this country to 

 fuffer the Humber to pafs freely over the land, in order that the proprietors may obtain a 

 new foil at will. From certain data, which might eafily be obtained, and the calculation of 

 Wallerius) that level foil left to itfelf rifes half an inch in a century, it would be no difficult 

 matter to calculate the period of this deluge. 



There are, as I mentioned before, traces of the water when it firft broke in having rifen 

 up the fides of thefe hills, or wolds, fomething more than the height of the higheft of the lands 

 in Holdernefs ; for in many partS) both in Yorkfliire and Lincolnftiire, I have found the rounded 

 pebbles at the level of i lo or 120 feet above the fea; and I am of opinion, that, if fearched 

 for, at the fame level there will be found * gravel, or other marks of the action of the fea, in 

 almoft every part of the ifland. Similar inferences feem to have been drawn by Linnaeus, 

 Wallerius, and Pallas, in their obfervations on the Balticv 



Many of the hills of gravel in Holdernefs evidently ftiew that they were formed by a pe- 

 riodic fubfidence from water ; fome of them appear to have been conical, and every diftinft 



• What height is Kenfington gravel pits ? — A. 



P p 2 lajw 



