NORTH OF SCARBOROUGH. 135 



also are the coffin and skeleton of the Brigantian chief discovered 

 at Gristhorp, with other objects of antiquarian interest. 



From Scarborough to the northward the coast is for several 

 miles irregular and rugged, but rather low, never rising to so 

 much as 135 feet above the sea until we reach Cloughton Wyke. 

 The cliffs are formed of gritstone and shales, yielding fossils at 

 Scalby ; and just before arriving at Cloughton Wyke, the cal- 

 careous rock of White Nab comes up from beneath the sand- 

 stones, and ascends to the edge of the little bay (or wyke). 

 Over this series is detrital sand and gravel. In the shale above 

 the limestone are ironstone balls. In the limestone many 

 fossils. 



In the higher cliffs which succeed (240 feet), and separate 

 Cloughton Wyke from Haiburn Wyke, the limestone is near 

 the top, and about half way down is a bed of poor coal. Hai- 

 burn Wyke is a romantic woody cleft in the rocks, a pleasant 

 bowery retreat in the heat of summer, rather too far from Scar- 

 borough to be commonly visited. 



Beyond rises the loftiest and most continuous mass of bold 

 cliff which occurs on the Yorkshire coast, called Staintondale 

 Cliff. It grows continually higher as we proceed northward 

 from Haiburn Wyke, till at the ' High Peak/ which is at the 

 truncation of an interior range of hills, it is 585 feet above the 

 water. The effect of this elevation, slight as compared with the 

 interior hills, great as compared with any cliffs to the southward, 

 on the prospect over the sea is something wonderful. 



Below a great part of the Staintondale Cliff is a remarkable 

 ' Undercliff/ caused by an ancient seaward slip of the old cliffs. 

 In this strange scene of confusedly aggregated rocks and un- 

 derwood, very curious views are presented, but few besides zealous 

 geologists care to traverse its labyrinthine paths. 



This line of cliffs affords the best and most connected section 

 of the strata between the calcareous rocks of White Nab and 

 Cloughton Wyke, and the Lias. The almost countless members 



