62 DESCRIPTION OF THE COAST. 



deposits will claim our attention, I shall be obliged to restrict my descrip- 

 tions to those which exhibit the most important characters, and to barely 

 notice those of minor interest. We shall, therefore, proceed about half- 

 a-mile further, to about opposite Holympton, where the cliffs are lower, 

 and a more extended lacustrine deposit appears in a hollow of the dilu- 

 vium. (See enlarged section, E.) The length of this deposit is about 

 two hundred yards, and its extreme height above the sea, about ten feet, 

 It rests in a hollow of the pebbly clay, which abounds along the shore, 

 and consists, under the thin brown soil, of seven distinct layers of clay, 

 the lowest of which contains cyclades and Paludina tentaculata, and the 

 lowest but one, roots of plants, but no peat. The layers are thus arranged : 



Lacustrine deposit. Brown soil. Bluish bed of argillaceous marl. Shaly clay, 

 changing upwards to white clay marl. Shaly bed of clay. Blue and brown clay marl. 

 Black marl, with plant roots. Grey marl, with cyclades and paludinse, which inhabited 

 the lake. Diluvial clay, with pebbles of quartz, slate, and greenstone. 



Beyond Holympton, the cliff, though still low, rises a little toward 

 Owthorne, and displays, in little hollows, two other deposits of laminated 

 clay, indicating the sites of ancient lakes. Of these, the southern is 

 twelve yards across, the other, near Withernsea, one hundred yards. 



Between Withernsea and Owthorne, the pebbly clay sinks very low, 

 even beneath low-water mark, and the shore is maintained by the broken 

 edges of a remarkable lacustrine formation. The mere or lake, under 

 whose waters^ in ancient times, the clay beds and accumulations of peat 

 and trees were here laid m a regular series, is still represented by a little 

 reedy flat, partly covered by drifted sand. It has been conjectured that 

 this little flat is a continuation of the winding level in which the Winestead 

 drain is excavated, and that in this direction the sea once joined the 

 Humber. But it appears to me that this ancient lake was never con- 

 nected with the Winestead level, but poured its waters into the sea, under 

 the protection of cliffs which are no longer in existence. The sea line, at 

 low water, now crosses the middle of the ancient lake, and washes the 

 deposits which happened within it. At the bottom, immediately upon 



