Sheppard : Coast Changes at Hornsea. 119 



Poulson quotes ' Burnsell on the East Riding,' presei-ved 

 in the British Museum, as follows : — ' A water prettie deep, and 

 always fresh, about a mile and a half long, and half a mile 

 broad, well stored with fish ; it hath in it three little plots, 

 two of them full of egs of Terns [? Terns] at the season, and 

 birds as can be imagined ; it is fed with the water that ran 

 into it of the adjoining higher grounde from the north, south, 

 and west, eastwards it runs up into the sea b}^ a ditch, call'd 

 the stream ditch, wdien the clew is open'd, there are mannie 

 springs in it also ; the soyle is in some places gravel' d, in 

 others a perfect weedy morass ; that this mere hath been 

 through some earthquakes and settling of the ground, with an 

 overflow of water thereupon, seems probable, speciallie if that 

 be true which I was told that there hath been seen old trees 

 floating uppon, and deca'd nutts found cast on the shore, 

 but, however, that be this is certain, that in the sea cliffs 

 against Hornsey, which is scarce a mile of, there is both wood 

 and nuts to be found, and there is now or was lately there, at 

 the downgate a win of wood which looks as black as if it had 

 been burnt, which I think is occasion'd through the saltness 

 of the sea water overflowing it, which both preserves wood 

 better than fresh water, and also by its saltness, and conse- 

 quently greater hotness, help to turn it black, all this intimates 

 that there hath been an inundation there ; but when no his- 

 torie, I believe, relates, unless it was in that earthquake, which 

 was so generall through the world in the time when Valentinian 

 and Valens were consuUs, anno Christ 368 ; unless we should 

 think as the vulgar say, those things hath been there ever since 

 Noah's flood ; this place bids as fare for anie other place I 

 have heard of yet ; I scarce think either wood or nutts can 

 continue so long, though kept never so close from the violent 

 motion of the air, &c.' 



Bearing on this, it is interesting to note that a section of 

 the old mere was exposed in the cliffs in 1906, and a description 

 of this, with a list of the shells, seeds, etc., found, appeared 

 in The Naturalist for that year (page 420). One fact brought 

 out in connection with this paper was that the numerous remains 

 of animals and plants preserved in what was once the bed of 

 an easterly extension of the present Mere, or more probably 

 another mere altogether, clearly indicate that the mere had 

 not been encroached upon by the waters of the North Sea. 

 The fauna and flora is such that certainly could not have lived 

 in water containing any appreciable admixture of salt. 



On geological evidence, therefore, it seems clear that there 

 has at no time been a connection between either of the meres 

 at Hornsea and the sea. 



A few years ago on the site of the gasworks, which are 

 on the edge of the present Mere, an excellent opportunity 

 was afforded of examining the old deposits there formed, and 



1912 April I. 



