CHALK CLIFFS. 73 



sea. Beyond Selwicks bay, layers of flint become very conspicuous in 

 the chalk, and several curious indentations break the line of the cliffs, 

 which are from one hundred and thirty to one hundred and forty 

 feet high, between Selwicks bay and the north landing-place, in one 

 of which rise two island pinnacles of chalk, called the King and Queen. 

 The north landing-place of the Flamborough fishermen is a little hollow 

 or bay of rocks, with a channel for boats at low-water, and a gravelly 

 beach. Here are caves in the depressed chalk, worthy of examination 

 by the lover of scenery, and the geologist. 



The origin of many inland caverns in limestone is exceedingly obscure. 

 Though water flows through many of them, and by incessant attrition 

 smooths their surfaces, and modifies their forms, yet, perhaps, we 

 ought rather to believe that the cave, originally existing, directed the 

 course of the stream, than that water excavated the cave. By the sea- 

 side it is otherwise ; the destructive action of the sea is not doubtful ; 

 the cliffs crumble before its salt vapours, and waste away under its 

 furious waves. One loosened stone beats down another, and thus the 

 soft parts are hollowed out, whilst the harder portions jut into promon- 

 tories, or stand naked in the water. If the soft parts, exposed to the 

 waves, be enclosed in firmer matter, caves and arches are formed, which 

 are afterwards liable only to slow alteration : but if these yielding ma- 

 terials extend far in a horizontal direction, the cliff undergoes rapid 

 diminution. These observations are of general application. Projecting 

 capes and headlands are usually composed of firmly-compacted strata, 

 whilst bays and estuaries commonly present less resisting materials. 

 Between the north landing-place and a more remarkable bay to the 

 west, the prominent cliffs are one hundred and seventeen feet high, and 

 mostly composed of chalk ; but at both these bays that stratum sinks 

 low, and is covered by a vast accumulation of diluvium. These unsolid 

 materials fall and waste away into slopes, which often become covered 

 with grass, and afford a dangerous pasture for cattle and sheep. But on 

 the west side of the remarkable bay before alluded to, the diluvium 

 is subject to such continual waste, that it appears in the form of bare 

 pinnacles resting upon the caverned chalk. 



