LIAS CLIFFS. 95 



ft. in. 



Here a coal adit enters into the face of the cliff. 



White sandstone and plants ... 20 



Irony or dogger bed ... ... ... ... 2 



Alum shale ... ... ... ... ... 30 



At a point called High Whitby, two hundred and eighty-five feet above 

 high-water, the cap rock is upon the top, and ten or more alternations of 

 shale and sandstones may be observed between it and the lias. A sand- 

 stone bed, seventy-four feet below the summit of the cliff, is remarkable 

 for containing a great number of cylindrical fossil plants, jointed across 

 like canes, or rather like equiseta, and furnished with a denticulated 

 striated fringe or sheath at every joint. They are called by Mr. Koenig, 

 Oncylogonatum. They are situated vertically in the beds of sandstone, 

 are broken off or imperfect above, and seldom reach to the upper surface 

 of the bed ; they are also broken off below, but commonly pass to the 

 lower surface, and some of the lower joints nearest the roots are found 

 in the subjacent bed of shale. These appearances have led some persons 

 to conjecture that the plants are preserved in the place of their growth ; 

 that the shale served them for soil, and that they were buried by an 

 influx of sand and water. A more probable hypothesis, perhaps, will 

 suggest itself to those who have seen plants transported by great floods, 

 floating down the streams in a perpendicular position, in consequence of 

 the superior specific gravity of their roots. 



Proceeding from High Whitby, the cliffs fall gradually toward the 

 north, and at the same time the lias rises to the height of one hundred 

 feet above the sea. It however sinks again near the harbour at Whitby, 

 where a great dislocation depresses it suddenly on the north, and prevents 

 its distinct re-appearance as far as Sandsend. From High Whitby to 

 this dislocation, though the sandstones and shales vary much in thickness 

 and colours, we may notice that the thin coal seams are always most 

 decisively marked, and most alluring to the adventurer, in the neigh- 

 bourhood of the fossil plants which lie above the irony dogger bed. 

 These plants consist wholly of what are believed to be monocotyledonous 

 tribes, like the zamiae, or cycadeae, and ferns of many genera. They lie 



