64 DESCRIPTION OF THE COAST. 



The cliffs north of Sandley mere rise gradually, and, opposite Hilston, 

 are about eighty feet high. Where they reach the height of sixty-nine 

 feet, a very interesting deposit of fresh-water clay and shells appears on 

 the top, for the length of two hundred feet. (See section G.) Its 

 thickness is four feet eight inches ; the upper two feet six inches con- 

 sist of fine clay ; below, are six inches of peat ; then, six inches of clay 

 perforated by roots ; next, eight inches of clay, with plenty of Lymntea 

 stagnalis ; two inches of peat, and four inches of a soft, yellowish earth. 

 Beneath this deposit, is the blue pebbly clay, which forms the mass of 

 the cliffs. 



Beyond Hilston, as far as Grimston garth, the cliff maintains the 

 same composition, and, with some undulations, keeps the same elevation ; 

 but towards Ringbrough it falls, and becomes still lower beyond. Here 

 a layer of gravel appears in the midst of the clay. Opposite East New- 

 ton the cliff is, at the utmost, sixty-seven feet high, but between this 

 and Bunker's hill it falls to forty feet, and is covered by fresh-water 

 deposits of clay, with blue phosphate of iron, peat, and curled black shale. 

 The peat has produced abundance of hazel nuts. Bunker's hill, which 

 is on the north, is seventy-nine feet high ; from hence the cliff preserves, 

 by Great Cowton and Mappleton, a nearly uniform height of sixty feet, 

 till it sinks to the wide hollow opposite Hornsea. The general base of 

 this whole cliff is the same blue and brown diluvial pebbly clay, and 

 the only change in its appearance which strikes the attention, is a more 

 abundant diffusion of chalk pebbles in the northern part. It is almost in- 

 variably the case, that the blue part of this clay is at the bottom, and 

 the brown above ; but the joints of the brown variety are very often 

 stained blue, apparently by water passing down them. At Great Cow- 

 ton, a quantity of gravel lies above the brown clay ; and in going along 

 the shore, beyond Mappleton, I observed four separate fresh-water de- 

 posits on the top of the cliff, and in the middle of the clay a continued 

 seam of gravel. Similar appearances continue to Hornsea gap. 



The streams which pass by Hornsea fall into the sea through a wide 

 depression of the cliffs, called Hornsea gap. The well-known lake called 



