1-M THE SEA-COAST. 



drained lakes in the cliffs of Holderness ; a hollow in pebbly 

 clays or sands, covered by fine argillaceous, perhaps shelly sedi- 

 ments, over which peat is spread, and above all the sandy, 

 loamy, and argillaceous accumulations which are in daily 

 progress. 



The great Peat period the period of subterranean and sub- 

 marine forests is of high antiquity, though one of the latest 

 in the classification of geologists. 



Hornsea has begun to attract its share of the annual migra- 

 tion of Yorkshiremen to the sea-coast; and to many quiet- 

 loving people its comparative retirement is a source of enjoy- 

 ment. The Holderness coast is by no means deficient of interest 

 for those who love any of the wonders of nature, and the interior 

 offers some memorials for the antiquary and ethnologist. 



North of Hornsea, low cliffs, occasionally diversified by peaty 

 deposits and shelly marls the beds of old lakes continue to 

 Atwick, where the height of 40 feet is reached, and other lacus- 

 trine deposits appear. A fine elephant's tusk was found in the 

 cliff here. Beyond Skirlington Hill, 60 feet high, freshwater 

 deposits occur, one of which, containing peat upon shelly clays, 

 yielded to Mr. A. Strickland the head and horns of the Great 

 Irish Elk (Cervus megaceros). Cliffs, nowhere exceeding 30 feet 

 in height, continue by Skipsea, broken here and there by fresh- 

 water deposits ; but for the most part, from hence to Bridlington, 

 these perishing cliffs show at the bottom the amorphous boulder- 

 clay, in the middle finer and more laminated sediments, and 

 above all, layers of chalk and flint gravel, variously inclined, and 

 accompanied by many marks of local agitation and drifting. 



Among the peculiarities of Holderness may be reckoned the 

 irregular mounds of gravel and sand (containing crag-shells near 

 Heddon and Paghill), which denote the ancient effect of sea- 

 currents, for all Holderness was a sea-bed in the ' glacial ' 

 period. Of these, the long curved mound of Brandsburton, 

 which in Norway would be called an ' asar/ and in Ireland an 

 ' escar/ is one of the most singular. It has yielded remains 



