60 DESCRIPTION OF THE COAST. 



lated in little bays and recesses ; whilst the lighter particles of clay 

 are transported away to the south, making muddy water, and finally 

 enter the great estuary of the Humber, and enrich the level lands 

 under the denomination of warp. The sand and pebbles, which were at 

 first deposited hear the place where they fell, are afterwards removed 

 further and further south by the tide, and the cliffs are left exposed to 

 fresh destruction. Thus the whole shore is in motion, every cliff is 

 hastening to its fall, the parishes are contracted, the churches washed 

 away, and not unreasonable fears are entertained that at some time the 

 waters of the ocean and the Humber may join, and the Spurn become an 

 isknd. At present, however, the isthmus stands firm, and though com- 

 posed only of a heap of pebbles and sand, and exposed to two strong- 

 currents, may, perhaps, be little changed for ages to come. Such is the 

 efficacy of long equal slopes and a pebbly sand, in repelling the rage of 

 the sea. 



Among innumerable pebbles derived from the wasted cliffs of Holder, 

 ness, which are here thrown up by the sea, we observe diallage rock, and 

 mica slate with garnets, and a great variety of sienites, ,green- stones, and 

 porphyries, which have been derived from Scotland, and perhaps Nor- 

 way ; much granite from Shap fell, sienite from Carrock fall, breccia from 

 Kirby Stephen, and other Cumbrian rocks ; limestone and sandstone from 

 the western part of Yorkshire, and lias fossils from the neighbourhood of 

 Whitby. 



From Spurn Point to Kilnsea, the shore is very low, and, being com- 

 posed only of gravel and sand, presents little that requires remark. The 

 ruins of Kilnsea church stand upon a low ruinous cliff, of very peculiar 

 composition. Not a single pebble is to be seen in it, but the whole 

 height is a mass of loam or warp, disposed in regular lamina?, whose 

 parallel surfaces are undulated like the broadest ripple-marks on a level 

 sand. (A) is a sketch to shew the peculiar arrangement of these laminse, 

 and it must be noticed that, in the sharper curves, the lamina? are sepa- 

 rated a little from each other, (a) 



