SCARBOROUGH CLIFF. 87 



stratum, lie on the top of the rock just below the Oxford clay. At 

 Scarborough, they lie a little deeper in the stone. On account of its 

 comparative hardness, the upper beds of this rock project on the hill 

 sides beyond the slopes of the incumbent clay, and form little buttresses 

 beneath those remarkable " nabs" by which the calcareous grit is recog- 

 nised in the vicinity of Scarborough. 



That stratum of the oolitic series, which, in the south of England, 

 Mr. Smith named the " cornbrash," is well known to be a very variable 

 rock as to its substance and thickness, but remarkably well characterised 

 by its fossils. It is by their aid that we have traced this thin and other- 

 wise unimportant rock, with hardly a single interruption, from Dorset- 

 shire to Lincolnshire. It is, therefore, by organic fossils and geological 

 position alone, that we can expect to recognise the cornbrash on the coast 

 of Yorkshire. By these characters it may be satisfactorily identified : 

 it usually appears as a single, thick, fissile, calcareous bed, lying almost 

 in contact with the bottom of the Kelloways rock ; but eminently dis- 

 tinguished from it by the nature of its substance, and the shells with 

 which it is filled. Without close attention, so thin a layer can hardly 

 be traced along the cliffs ; and it is, therefore, not surprising that its 

 inland course is rather assumed than proved. Below it is the carbo- 

 naceous series of shales and sandstones, whose northward extension re- 

 mains to be described. 



CLIFFS NORTH OF SCARBOROUGH. 



FROM low-water mark on the shore beneath the drawbridge, the 

 carbonaceous shale rises gradually, till at length, the cornbrash having 

 terminated, it possesses the whole stratified portion of the cliff; but a 

 great quantity of diluvial clay and pebbles lie upon it, thickening towards 

 Peaseholm beck. The hill beyond, on whose slope are some entrench- 

 ments commonly termed Oliver's battery, is likewise composed of di- 

 luvium resting on shale and thin sandstones ; and this character con- 

 tinues to the opening at Scalby beck. Here, on both sides of the stream, 



