24 PHYSIOGRAPHY OF THE EAST RIDING. 



is their abrupt termination facing the North Sea, and well- 

 known to all who navigate the latter as Flamborough Head. 

 The magnificent chalk promontory, quite peninsular in 

 outline, has a coast of six miles round, and includes pre- 

 cipitous cliffs, great cavernous "holes," outlying stacks, and 

 a number of indenting "wicks," or bays. The well-known 

 lighthouse stands near the easternmost extremity of the 

 headland, a little over two hundred feet above sea level, but 

 Bempton Cliffs, as the northern face of the promontory is 

 named, are upwards of 400 feet in sheer perpendicular height. 

 Consisting entirely of chalk, except for certain superficial 

 glacial deposits, and being much exposed to the winds, 

 Flamborough Head does not constitute a very ricii hunting 

 ground for flowering plants ; but it is not without interest 

 even in this respect, having a few not found elsewhere round 

 the East Riding coast, whilst the marine botanist will find 

 his time spent in ransacking the rock-pools at the "landings" 

 and in the "wicks" well rewarded with the discovery of many 

 algae. 



The surface weathering of the chalk has resulted in a series 

 of rather monotonous undulating uplands (locallv called 

 " wold " or "field," i\o; Driffield "Wold," Kilham "'Field ") 

 cut into by numerous dales, steep-sided and V-shaped in 

 vertical section, notable examples being Welton, Drewton, 

 Bessingdale, and Thixendale. Many of these are dry and 

 without the appearance of any running water in them, and 

 are not infrequently partially filled in with chalk and flint 

 gravel. It is on these gravels and also on the slopes of the 

 dales that the botanist will do his best work amongst the 

 xerophiles (dry-loving plants). 



The soil covering the Wolds and the slopes of their dales, 

 except where derived from the boulder clay sometimes super- 

 incumbent on them, is of extreme thinness, being rarely more 

 than a few inches in depth, and does not admit of, or require 

 very deep ploughing. The sub-soil is not usually solid chalk 

 but somewhat broken up and fragmentary to a considerable 

 depth, and this condition, together with the very rubbly or 

 flinty character of the soil, gives a degree of porosity to the 

 Wolds that none of the other div^isions possesses. The driest 

 region it is almost possible to conceive, yet these low hills 

 are well-adapted to the growth of beech trees, barley, and 

 oats. The pastures of the higher Wolds do not strike one as 

 very luxuriant after traversing Holderness. Henr}' Best, of 

 Emswell, says, "Most of the grass that groweth on the 

 landes, and especially on the leyes of the Wolds is a small 



