340 



THE PLAIN OF MARINE DENUDATION BENEATH 

 THE DRIFT OF HOLDERNESS.* 



Prof. V. !•. KKNDALL, F.G.S., and W. H. CKOl-TS. 



The Plain of Holderness is covered entirely with glacial 

 deposits, no solid rock being- visible throughout the whole area. 

 Numerous borings have shown that a floor of chalk extends 

 under the area sloping in a general way towards the existing 

 coast. Mr. G. W. Lamplugh, some years ago, discovered that 

 the chalk cliffs between F'lamborough and Sewerby, near Brid- 

 lington, ran in behind a drift-covered area, and that this line of 

 cliffs consisted of two parts. The visible part was of modern 

 date, while the ancient wave and wind-worn cliff was prolonged 

 inland. At the base of this ancient cliff he discovered a shingle 

 beach, resting upon a floor of chalk and covered in succession 

 b}' WMnd-blown sands, chalk wash, and over all a glacial boulder 

 cla}'. One of the authors of this paper (Mr. Crofts) subsequently 

 discovered the counterpart of this succession in an extension at 

 Hessle Station on the North Eastern Railway. An examination 

 of the details obtained by well-boring in Holderness and its 

 margin, disclosed the fact that these two points could be 

 connected by a continuous line of cliffs passing nearly on the 

 line taken by the North Eastern Railway, and passing through 

 Beverley. Details of a large number of borings between this 

 cliff line and the sea shewed that the slope was a very gradual 

 one, a slope of only 90 feet being contained in a distance of 12 

 miles up to Hornsea. Near Beverley and Hull the floor showed 

 considerable irregularities and the pre-glacial course of the 

 H umber was clearly indicated by a great trumpet -shaped 

 depression extending from the present Humber gap out in a 

 due easterly direction. The relations of the land level indicated 

 by these data with those deducible from borings in the Vale ot 

 York, were discussed and showed that a wide valley excavated 

 in rock extended far below sea-level through a large area, at 

 York being 50 feet below the level of the sea. The data are 

 altogether inadequate in the determination of the relatixe age of 

 these two land levels, but the higher level, indicated by the 

 deep Vale of York, was probably antecedent to the lower land 

 level, of which the chalk plain in Holderness and the cliffs 

 which bound it were indications. 



' .Abstract of I^ajii-r vr:n\ to Scclioii C at a Mcotiiii;- oltlir Hiilish Asso- 

 ciation, A'ork. 



NaturaUtt, 



