34 DESCRIPTION OF THE STRATA. 



marl, as in the Grimston cliff, for in the bottom of Hornsea mere, 

 above the vegetable remains, thei'e is a quantity of fine light powder, 

 which if indurated would form a marl of the very same nature. Dr. 

 Plot, in his History of Oxfordshire (p. 160, 161, 53, 57), mentions the 

 discovery of large trees, with other vegetable remains, in the bottom 

 of ponds; particularly at a place called Blund's Court; where also 

 there was found, over the decayed vegetables, a bed of fine light co- 

 loured marl, which, like that in the cliff near Grimston, contained 

 "a bkieish substance, much of the consistence of flower of sulphur, 

 and not much unlike to the finest blue starch.'* This substance, 

 which, as was hinted above, we conceive to be the remains of mi- 

 mite blue insects, he names cceruleian nativum, or native blue; but 

 he very correctly states, that it is so intermixed with the marl, " that 

 no quantities can be got for the painter's use." In the bottom of the 

 same pond, there was found a stag's head with the antlers, together 

 with two Roman urns. 



It would be easy to multiply instances of the same kind, ob- 

 served in other parts of Britain, and in the north of Ireland :* but 

 our own district and its vicinity will supply a sufficient number of 

 facts, to illustrate and confirm the opinion which we have advanced. 

 When the mere at Seamer in Cleveland was^ drained a few years ago, 

 the bottom of it was found to be a peat bog, containing numbers of 

 trees ; and the skulls and antlers of deers, with the horns and bones 

 of a large species of ox, were also discovered. Similar remains, both 

 vegetable and animal, have been found at Malton, near the bed of the 

 Derwent. At a formei' period, the course of that river below Malton 

 appears to have been greatly obstructed, and its waters collecting in 

 the vale of Pickering, and towards Malton, formed extensive marshes, 

 the bottoms of which noAV exist in the form of peat bogs. Hence we 



* See Philosopli. Transactions, V. XXII. No. 275, p. 980, &c. Geological Transactions,, 

 r. III. p^'SSO; IV. p. 443. 



