105 
forming the coast. Now, an examination with that object in view, 
shews us that between Parton and Port Hamilton, the cliffs consist 
chiefly of alternations of sandstones and soft shales belonging to 
the Coal Measures. From Port Hamilton to St. Bees—that is, 
around St. Bees Head—they are made up of red sandstone, whilst 
opposite St. Bees they are composed of drift—an incoherent mass 
of sand and gravel—which at that point overlies the red sandstone. 
Now this drift and the soft shale, which make up a considerable 
part of the cliffs between Parton and Port Hamilton, are very 
much more easily denuded by the sea than the compact sandstone 
of St. Bees Head, and consequently they have been worn farther 
back than it. But it may be said, if that is the correct explanation 
of the prominence of St. Bees Head, how is it, seeing that the 
whole of that head is formed of red sandstone, that there occurs 
a little bay—called Fleswick—about midway across it? Is the red 
sandstone at Fleswick softer than the red sandstone on each side 
of that place, forming the remainder of the head? Or why is it 
that the sea has been able to push back the cliffs further at Fleswick 
than on each side of it? An examination of the ground sbews us 
that there the cliffs are lower than on each side, in consequence 
of a small valley which at that point comes down tothe sea. That 
is why the bay has been formed; for although the sandstone 
around the bay and that on each side of it may be of equal hard- 
ness, and consequently present the same resistance to the waves, 
yet it must be quite clear to everyone, at a moment’s reflection, 
that before the waves can eat away the cliffs to any given distance 
inland, they must remove more material where the cliffs are high 
than where they are low. Consequently if the sea removes the 
same amount of matter from every point upon which it impinges, 
as presumably it must do, if the rock is everywhere of equal 
hardness, then it will make the greatest progress inland at those 
points where the cliffs are lowest. That is exactly,what it has 
done at Fleswick. The cliffs there being lower than they are on 
each side, the sea, in doing the same amount of work at every 
point it broke against, has of necessity, for the reasons just stated, 
formed a bay. The same explanation may be extended to the 
