REMARKS ON THE DILUVIUM. 103 



till at length the lias formation is abruptly truncated, and the whole cliff 

 is diluvial. Henceforward to the Tees no regular stratum appears in 

 any cliff beneath the diluvium, but at low-water, opposite Redcar, the 

 lower shale with characteristic fossils stands up in bare hard rocks. 



HAVING thus brought to a close the descriptions of the strata of the 

 Yorkshire coast, it remains to add a few remarks on the composition of 

 the diluvial accumulation which is visible on so many of the cliffs be- 

 tween Bridlington and the mouth of the Tees. These remarks, if in- 

 troduced in detached portions amongst the descriptions of the solid 

 strata, would have been much less intelligible, than when brought into 

 one point of view. 



As in Holderness and at Flamborough, so in the more northern cliffs, 

 the most abundant of the diluvial accumulations is a mass of clay un- 

 equally filled with a variety of pebbles, and occasionally divided by 

 partial deposits of sand and gravel. These are the materials heaped in 

 such profusion along the shores of Filey bay, Cayton bay, Carnelian bay, 

 and the south and north cliffs of Scarborough, as well as in the retiring 

 cliffs of Robin Hood's bay, Upgang, Runswick bay, Skinningrave bay, 

 and the long range of coast west of Saltburn. Nor, though most plenti- 

 ful in the hollows of the coast, is it unknown in the heights, for it occu- 

 pies the very highest precipice of chalk, four hundred and thirty feet 

 above the sea, lies in abundance on Gristhorpe, and covers the summit 

 of Huntcliff. 



To give a complete catalogue of all the varieties of pebbles which lie 

 in this clay, would be a work of great labour and little interest. Such 

 comparisons are important only in proportion to the light they throw on 

 the probable direction in which the waters moved, that transported them 

 to their present localities ; and this object is better attained by selecting 



