OOLITIC SERIES. 85 



trigonise, ostreae, &c. ; and its blocks, strewed on the sands, afford a rich 

 harvest to the geologist. Still lower are the shales and sandstones of the 

 carbonaceous grit. Scarborough castle-hill, therefore, agrees in general 

 composition with Gristhorpe and Red cliffs, but its summit is crowned 

 with the oolite which does not occur on them. Further ; since in none 

 of the cliffs from Filey to Scarborough do we find any of the superior 

 calcareous grit, which is found above the oolite near Kirby-Moorside and 

 Helmsley, it is certain that on the Yorkshire coast this oolite series is 

 imperfect, by the deficiency of its upper members. That such deficiency 

 is aboriginal, no one will suppose, who considers the deep-cut vallies and 

 vast heaps of diluvium in the country about Scarborough ; for these 

 bring irrefragable testimony to the wide-spreading and powerful denu- 

 dations caused by the deluge. In order, therefore, to gain a complete 

 knowledge of this oolitic formation, it is necessary to study the coast 

 ?ind the interior together : the cliffs against the sea must be compared 

 with the quarries and watercourses inland, before such a table of strati- 

 fication can be prepared as 1 have given in the previous pages of this 

 work. Moreover, it must be observed, that nowhere on this coast do 

 we find those lowest layers of the Kimmeridge clay, which at Kirby- 

 moorside and West Helmsley furnish the characteristic ostrea delta. 

 These beds have yielded to the same diluvial impetus. But, with these 

 exceptions, the series on the coast is complete, from the top of the chalk 

 to nearly the base of the Has, and junctions may be examined of all the 

 adjacent strata. 



As the Oxford clay, Kelloways rock and cornbrash are nowhere on 

 the coast better seen than at Scarborough, and as we shall have no other 

 opportunity of noticing them, till we come to treat of their organic con- 

 tents, I shall take this opportunity of adding some notice of their general 

 character and appearance. 



The chief reason for giving the name of Oxford clay to the gray argil- 

 laceous earth of Scarborough castle-hill, is its position between the well- 

 determined strata of calcareous grit and Kelloways rock ; for, indepen- 

 dently of this circumstance, no particular affinity can be traced between 



