50 DESCRIPTION OF THE STRATA. 



masses of the chalk remain as pillars to support them. The pillars 

 themselves, after a lapse of years, successively give way, and the 

 roofs of the grottos fall in; and as the work of excavation still goes 

 on, the stateliness of some of the present caves is increased by the 

 remains of the pillars and walls of more ancient grottos, forming a 

 kind' of porches or antichambers before them. Vast quantities of 

 chalk in masses and fragments, rounded by attrition, lie scattered 

 on the shore, from whence many large boat-loads are annually carried 

 off, to be bui'nt into lime near Whitby, and on other parts of the 

 coast. 



It is scarcely necessary to observe, that in the more exposed 

 parts of the cliffs, the upper or loose chalk is entirely gone, having 

 been dissolved and thrown down by the winds and rains; and hence, 

 along the greater part of the Flamborough shores, the compact chalk 

 forms the highest verge of the cliffs. This is especially the case in 

 the lofty Speeton cliffs, where the chalk rises in massive columns to 

 the height of near 300 feet. Here the beating of the rains on the top 

 of the cliffs, has produced an effect analogous to that of the dashing 

 of the waves on the bottom to^vards Flamborough Head ; for as there 

 the waves have hollowed the lower part of the vertical fissures into 

 caverns, leaving the more solid parts standing as pillars, — here the 

 rains have produced deep sinuosities and breaks in the upper part of 

 the same fissures, leaving the firm chalk between them in the form of 

 tall pinnacles. A spectator from the beach almost imagines himself 

 at the foot of a stupendous castle,, whose lofty walls are surmounted 

 by a range of magnificent towers. In some parts too, where the pin- 

 nacles have fallen off, and left the upper surface flat, the massive 

 columns, having square angles, present the appearanc'e of tall church 

 towers without spires. The view of these chalk cliffs, from a conve- 

 nient distance, is truly grand and picturesque ; especially when the 

 beams of the rising or, setting sun are gleaming across them; the 



