68 DESCRIPTION OF THE COAST. 



clay, under a covering of gravel. At Owburne, nothing appears but the 

 laminated clay ; but beyond, this rises into the cliff, and continues 

 between the incumbent gravel and subjacent pebbly clay, all the way to 

 Bridlington. It is well distinguished from the pebbly clay by the un- 

 dulations of its layers, and by the extremely small size of the gravel 

 which is mixed with it. I am induced to refer its origin to the diluvial 

 floods, because of the extensive covering of gravel which here lies upon 

 it ; and there can be no better proof than this affords of the varied con- 

 dition of those waters. For, in the cliff south of Bridlington, we behold 

 at the bottom a great mass of amorphous clay, full of pebbles, derived 

 from distant places in different directions, evidently brought together 

 by a wide-spreading and mighty flood ; above lies a more equal deposit 

 from more quiet waters : and over all is spread a confused mass of gravel, 

 composed chiefly of chalk and flint, derived from the neighbouring 

 hills. At the bottom, we see the turbulent effects of rushing floods ; 

 above the sediment of tranquillizing waters ; and finally, the accumula- 

 tions from a local current. 



1 FROM the preceding description of the coast of Holderness, it is 

 evident that no formations appear there which can be considered as 

 older than the deluge. Of the diluvial accumulations, by far the most 

 prevalent, that which is the base of the whole cliff, is blue and brown 

 clay, containing dispersed pebbles ; above this, a more local deposit of 

 undulated laminated clay ; and finally, gravel on the top, or mixed with 

 the pebbly clay. In this formation lie the teeth and tusks of antedilu- 

 vian elephants, and abundance of water-worn fossil shells, derived from 

 neighbouring and remote districts. Resting on these diluvial beds, we 

 find the deposits of later, more quiet, more contracted waters. Lakes, 

 which existed in hollows of the deluge-worn surface, have been slowly 

 filled up by clay marl, shells, and peat, subsiding from their waters, and 

 either drained by the industry of man, or emptied by the approaches of 

 the sea. The shells which occur in these clay beds, belong to fresh- 

 water species now living ; they lie almost invariably at the bottom of 



