V2 DESCRIPTION OF THE STRATA. 



and large, with a mixture of what appear to be small fragments of 

 shells ; and the stone is coarser grained than that of Whitestone cliff, 

 as well as more opaque, the edges of its fragments being scarcely 

 translucent. Its colour is grey, but of various shades ; being in some 

 parts ash grey, in some reddish, and in some approaching to yellow. 

 When struck with the hammer, it emits a ringing sound: which is 

 very perceptible even in fragments of the stone. Like the Whitestone 

 bed, it splits vertically, and is thus parted into huge blocks, often 

 separated by considerable fissures, into which the Maves are driven 

 at low water, with a hollow murmuring noise. 



The ironstone, which holds a conspicuous place in this series, is 

 extremely hard and compact. It is red or ferruginous without, and 

 blue or iron grey in the recent fracture. It appears to be partly cal- 

 careous, partly argillaceous, and has been ascertained to yield 15 per 

 cent, of iron ; being collected for an iron foundery at Newcastle, and 

 conveyed thither to be smelted. The beds are seldom more than 9 or 

 10 inches thick; and more frequently consist of nodules, or flat inter- 

 sected masses, than continuous strata. The ironstone is generally 

 imbedded in shale, which fills up the interstices between the nodules 

 or blocks ; but sometimes it is found disposed as a crust on the sur- 

 face of a sandstone bed, the intervals in that case being filled Up with 

 sandstone. The shale beds, in some places, are rather bituminous. 

 Shells and pieces of petrified wood are occasionally found in the iron- 

 stone, as well as in some of the sandstone beds. 



These strata ( marked g) form what we may call the pavement 

 of the shore, not only in front of Gristhorp cliffs, but from thence, 

 with some interruptions, and various changes, as far as to Cloughton 

 wyke. The interruptions are more apparent than real, and ought 

 rather to be called depressions ; for these beds undergo in their pro- 

 gress northward, those undulations already noticed in speaking of the 

 second shale ; nay, the undulations are more striking in them than in 



