42 DISTRICT OF 



Derwent. No such strata are known among the oolites, in any other 

 part of England : very similar rocks occur, however, at Brora in Suther- 

 land ; and M. A. Brongniart has described some of their characteristic- 

 plants from Scania. 



If we were to put out of consideration the shelly beds of limestone, 

 which alternate with them, we should find in these carboniferous rocks, 

 much resemblance to that more ancient deposit of coal, and sandstone, 

 and shale, which has been expressly called the coal formation. But still 

 we are furnished with the most satisfactory means of discrimination, in 

 the plants which accompany the coal : for though, perhaps, one hundred 

 species of fossil plants have been discovered in the west-riding coal- 

 field, and not less than fifty in the sandstones and shales of the north- 

 eastern coast ; it is not too bold an assertion to affirm, that no one species 

 has yet been found which is common to both situations. 



THE TABULAR OOLITIC HILLS. 



THESE hills meet the sea-coast between Filey and Scarborough 

 on the east. They rise toward the north from under the vale of 

 Pickering, and terminate in a remarkable line of escarpments at 

 Silpho Brow, Blakehoe Topping, Saltergate, Lestingham, Easterside, 

 and Black Hambleton. From the vale of Pickering the ascent 

 to them is long and gradual, but from the northern moors it is 

 very short and abrupt. The altitude of the hills increases westward. 

 Thus, Gristhorpe cliffs are about two hundred and seventy feet 

 high; Oliver's mount, four hundred and ninety feet; the heights 

 above Troutbeck, six hundred and fifty feet ; above Rievaulx Abbey, 

 eight hundred feet ; and at Hambleton, twelve hundred and forty-six 

 feet. Even at considerable distances, the plane summits and abrupt 

 terminations of these oolitic hills are very remarkable. 



From Hambleton, this range proceeds southward by Wass bank, nine 

 hundred feet, and eastward by Ampleforth and Oswaldkirk bank, three 



