OWTHORNE. 63 



the pebbly diluvial clay, we find some blue lacustrine clay, containing 

 small specimens of Anodon anatinus ; above this, lies a vast quantity of 

 peaty matter, full of hazel nuts and branches of trees ; more rarely the 

 bones of terrestrial animals occur, especially of the stag. Specimens of 

 these interesting remains have been presented to the Museum of the 

 Yorkshire Philosophical Society, by the Rev. C. Sykes, Mr. Salmond, and 

 Mr. Backhouse. This deposit ends towards the north, near the little pro- 

 jecting cliff which is all that remains of the church-yard of Owthorne ; 

 the church having been some time washed away, and the church-yard 

 so rapidly wasted, that all the gravestones have been removed. The 

 buried bones of former generations, which are seen projecting from the 

 crumbling cliff, have a singular appearance, and, combined with the 

 falling of the cliff and the roar of the destroying waves, fill the contem- 

 plative mind with solemn and awful reflections. Between Owthorne and 

 Sandley mere, the cliff attains an elevation of thirty-five feet, and is 

 composed of brown and blue clay, with pebbles scattered through it. 

 Two hundred yards south of Sandley mere, is a layer of gravel in the 

 clay, which produces a copious spring. (F.) Wells sunk in the diluvial 

 tracts of Holderness, seldom fail to produce water when they touch a 

 bed of gravel. 



Sandley mere, as its name implies, was formerly a lake ; it is now a 

 reedy flat, protected from the sea only by a broad beach of sand and 

 pebbles, thrown up by the tide, Sometimes a swelling tide rushes over 

 this unsettled barrier, enters the ancient mere, and would flow down the 

 marshy level of the Keyingham drainage, by Rooss and Ridgemont, to 

 the Humber, but for an artificial bank constructed under the manage- 

 ment of the commissioners of sewers. As at Owthorne, the sea now 

 flows over a part of the ancient bed of Sandley mere, and covers with 

 sand much of its clay and peat. In this lacustrine formation, the bones 

 of oxen and deer, with horns of the stag, &c. have been at different 

 times discovered. The diluvial clay cliffs also furnish teeth of the 

 elephant, in considerable plenty ; which, being commonly picked up on 

 the sand, are more or less worn by friction among the pebbles. It is 

 remarkable that no other parts of the skeleton are found here. 



