98 DESCRIPTION OF THE COAST. 



These ranges are seen on the other side of the point, dipping partly 

 along the shore, so that in the extremity of Runswick bay the hard 

 shale descends to the level of high-water mark, and forms the well- 

 known arched rocks. Here the soft shale is almost deficient, so that 

 the ironstone courses appear almost immediately in contact with the 

 hard shale. From the arched rocks to the village of Runswick, the low 

 and broken cliffs are wholly composed of diluvial clay and pebbles. 



Above the romantically placed village of Runswick, the cliff is 

 about two hundred and fifty feet high, and the sandstone cap is seen 

 upon the upper lias shale. The little valley or gulley which is here 

 scooped in the steep descent, exhibits imperfect, but, I think, satisfactory 

 traces of a fault or dislocation, the strata being higher on the north side 

 by about forty feet. From hence to a higher situation, called, I believe, 

 the Old nab, marked by two tumuli, the range of the sandstone is un- 

 broken, but it is variously divided by interposed shale. At nearly a 

 mile beyond Runswick there is a projecting point, and beyond it a wide 

 bay. This point I think is three hundred feet high, and it exhibits, 

 below a slight covering of diluvial matter, more than one hundred feet 

 of sandstones, shales, and irony dogger above the upper lias shale, which 

 is about one hundred and fifty feet thick, besides the hard rocky beds 

 which are exposed to the attacks of the sea. The bay beyond is over- 

 hung by a broken slipped cliff, whose extreme height is about three 

 hundred and twenty feet. The hard beds of shale continue to guard 

 the shore. The tumuli beyond this bay appear to be three hundred and 

 twenty-one feet, above high-water, whilst the cliff itself is three hundred 

 and one feet and the thickness of the sandstone series above the lias 

 seventy-three feet. The upper lias shale seems to be one hundred and 

 ninety feet thick, and the hard shale below about forty feet thick. 



From this place the sandstone rocks pass inland; and the other 

 strata rise successively toward Staithes. The hard shale forsakes the 

 base, and ascends to the summit of the cliff at the signal post, whilst 

 from beneath it, first the soft shale appears, and afterwards the ironstone 

 courses, in the same order as at Kettleness. A little bay not far from 



