284 Mr. J. Phillips on the Ancient and partly buried 



a brown or bluish colour, full of fragments of limestone, sand- 

 stone, slate, porphyry, granite, &c, derived from Northern and 

 North-western Yorkshire, from Cumberland, and Westmore- 

 land. In particular places a considerable quantity of chalk 

 and flints, derived from the neighbouring wolds, lies in the clay 

 or alternates with it: irregular layers of gravel and sand, con- 

 taining shells of the neighbouring sea, likewise diversify the 

 aspect of this diluvial deposit. It forms every hill and sinks 

 under every hollow in the whole space between the chalk hills 

 and the sea, and yields at several points Elephantoidal and 

 other quadrupedal reliquiae. 



It is exclusively in the ancient tide channels and desiccated 

 lakes that the vegetable accumulations occur. Here they 

 are buried under lacustrine sediments at various levels, some- 

 times below low-water mark, but generally at greater heights; 

 or covered by layers of sediment from the tide; or bare at 

 the surface. The following descriptions embrace the two lat- 

 ter conditions. 



4. In cutting the drain alluded to, it was found that the 

 low lands sloped regularly, though very slowly, from the H um- 

 ber bank to the northward, so that while the tide level was 

 only 4 or 5 feet above the nearest marsh-land immediately 

 within the banks, it was as much as 10 or 12 feet above that 

 in the interior of the country. This is analogous to the well- 

 known case of the marsh-lands near Lynn. A few littoral 

 marine shells, as Tellina tenuis, &c, lay at particular places 

 near the river in the silt, which varied in thickness according 

 to the original level of the general basis of gravelly clay : 

 sometimes the silt rested immediately upon the clay, but in 

 many parts they were separated by a more or less considera- 

 ble layer of black vegetable reliquice. Wherever a gravel or 

 clay ridge was cut through, it was clearly proved that the 

 mass of the ridge was continuous with that below the peat and 

 silt, these latter being in every instance terminated against the 

 higher and older land, by which some particular peat deposits 

 were almost completely encircled. The top of the subjacent 

 clay seemed in general of a lighter colour than the rest, and 

 less pebbly, sometimes, indeed, very little pebbly : it was 

 slightly and irregularly undulated, so as to form sinuosities 

 and hollows, in which the vegetable matter was collected more 

 abundantly than elsewhere. 



In one place, about 3 miles from the Humber, hazel 

 branches and portions of fir and oak were accumulated in a 

 narrow space like the line of an old flood channel ; and the 

 loose nuts, acorn cups, and land shells found here appeared 

 to show that the mass had been drifted to its present situation 



