HOLDERNESS. 57 



The following statement of substances found in sinking a well at 

 the Block-house mill, on the east side of the town of Hull, derived from 

 two accounts communicated at different times by my friends, will shew 

 what are the accompaniments of this remarkable layer of peat in Hol- 

 derness. 



Feet. Put. 



'Soil 1 



Clay 6 



Silt sand 23 $ 32 



Moor or peat, with large 

 trees, &c 2 



Alluvial deposit. 



Feet. Inches. 



Diluvial deposit. 



f Blue clay 1 



I Brown clay 22 



I Loamy clay 12 



|_ Quicksand 26 



Chalk . 



Mixed with chalk frag- 

 ments, carbonized wood, 

 &c 



62 

 16 



Total depth 110 



In Ottringham marsh the layer of peat, one yard thick, was found 

 forty-one yards beneath the surface ; thirty-six yards of various diluvial 

 matter lay beneath, and the chalk was found at the depth of seventy- 

 eight yards. 



These accounts are interesting in another point of view, for, by means 

 of them, we can determine correctly the dip or declination of the chalk. 

 The nearest situations where this stratum sinks below the marshland, are 

 at Hessle and Cottingham. The distance between Hessle and the Block- 

 house mill, in a straight line, is between four and five miles ; and as the 

 upper plane of the chalk was found in the latter instance ninety-four 

 feet deep, whilst at the former point it appears at the surface, the dip 

 towards the east is twenty feet per mile. The distance from Hessle to 

 Ottringham marsh is nearly fourteen miles, and the declination two 

 hundred and twenty-four feet, or sixteen feet per mile. If this mode- 

 rate declination be constant, the chalk rock may be reached by wells in 

 many parts of Holderness ; and thus, as in similar districts of Lincoln- 

 shire, unfailing supplies of water be obtained. 



i 



