J8 DESCRIPTION OF THE STRATA. 



parts of the Wolds, it is to the south-east; and at Riplingham, Swan- 

 land, and other places near the Humber, it is to the east; which last 

 is also the direction of the dip in Lincolnshire. Thus the chalk of 

 our district forms a kind of basin, or rather half basin, in Avhich the 

 alluvium of Holdemess lies ; the chalk dipping beneath that alluvium 

 on every side. The quantity, or angle, of the dip, is perhaps as va- 

 rious as its direction. Some have stated it at five yards in a mile; 

 but in many places it is vastly greater, while in others it may be less. 

 The distance from the heights near Flamborough, which we have 

 stated to be 400 feet high, to where the chalk sinks below the level 

 of the sea, is only about four miles; and the distance from Hunsley 

 beacon, which is 531 feet high, to the plains of Beverley and Cot- 

 tingham, can scarcely be more than five miles: so that the dip in each 

 of these instances is 100 feet per mile. In other places, however, the 

 declivity is much more gentle; and as we may presume, that nearly 

 the same inequalities in the surface of the chalk exist imder the allu- 

 vium, as we find in the hills, it is impossible to say, at what depth 

 the chalk might be found, at any given distance from the foot of the 

 hills. It is said, we know not on what authority, that at Sproatley 

 in Holdemess, the chalk is only 198 feet from the surface. Accord- 

 ing to the general dip of the strata, it ought there to be much deeper: 

 but it is not unlikely, that the chalk, after descending, may rise in 

 hummocks, forming little submarine, or subterraneous hills. This 

 idea is countenanced by the fact, that a rock rises in the sea at Smith- 

 wick sands, opposite Fraisthorpe near Bridlington Quay, and is almost 

 visible at low water: which rock may be presumed to be a part of 

 the chalk, which there ascends almost to the surface, a few miles south 

 from the place where it sinks below the horizon. The great height 

 of the alluvium at Aldborough and its vicinity makes it very proba- 

 ble, that there also the chalk again bends upward; and this agrees 

 with the account of its approaching so near the surface at Sproatley, 



