Il2 Geological and Mineralogical Survey 



again about half a mile below: and lastly, the Seven is swallowed 

 up & little above Sinnington, and appears again in its own chan- 

 nel, not all at once, but by successive risings, between Sinnington 

 and Normanby. Thus, in skirting the foot of these hills, the tra- 

 veller crosses a succession of subterraneous rivers. 



Caverns are also formed in beds of sandstone, not only by 

 Currents of water, but by the action of the atmosphere and the 

 rains, washing away the loose sands or soft strata below, and 

 leaving the harder strata above, in the form of a roof. In some 

 instances, insulated fragments of the hard strata are left standing 

 on a kind of pillars, like monuments of art. The rocks called the 

 Bride-stones, running along t!".e margin of a deep ravine, in the 

 moors near Saltergate, about two miles south of Blakey Topping, 

 furnish curious examples both of caves and insulated rocks. 

 Some of the latter appear like mushrooms, supported on a narrow 

 stalk; particularly one which is about thirty feet high, and in 

 one direction near the top about twenty feet broad, while the 

 stalk or pillar, which supports it, is only three feet across in one 

 direction, and about seven feet in the other. 



In the cliffs along the coast, the strata are not only liable to be 

 decomposed by the atmosphere, but undermined and wasted away 

 by the tides, especialiv in storms. The ratio in which this decay 

 proceeds is not easily ascertained; but it does not appear on an 

 average to exceed a yard in ten years, or ten yards in 100 years; 

 for though in some spots the decay is much greater, in others it 

 is much less. The notion that our abbey was a mile from the sea 

 at its first erection is a groundless fancy : the port of Whitby 

 always was where it now is: the cliffs might project 100 or 150 

 yards further in Hilda's time than at present, but that is the ut- 

 most extent that can reasonably be allowed. For the sake of fu- 

 ture investigations on this subject, I would here state, that the 

 distance from the outer edge ot the north buttresses of the tran- 

 sept of the abbey, measured in a line with the middle of the tran- 

 sept, to the edge of a hole that seems to be an old quarrv on the 

 margin of a cliff, was found in 1S!6 to be exactly 6.'34 feet, and 

 the distance across that hole to the verge of the precipice, 46 

 feet more; making in all GfiO feet from the edge of the cliff' to the 

 nearest part of the abbey, in the line of the transept. I may 

 add, that the distance from the middle of the outer court gate in 

 front of Mrs. Cholmley's hall, to the verge of the cliff", taken in 

 aline with the cross, is 238 vards, or 714 feet: and, that the 

 distance from the north-west angle of the tower of Whit'iv church 

 to the neare-t edge of the precipice behind Henrietta-street, is 

 70 feel. 

 Besides the numerous veins and vertical fissures that cross the 



strata 



