SANDSTONE, SHALE, AND COAL. 12l 



given. Some of the beds are very hard and highly siliceous, approach- 

 ing to the character of the crow-stone. A bed of this description, 

 which our borers would call strong white post, occurs in the Stainton 

 cliffs, in a part of the series above 100 feet higher than the alum schist. 

 It is remarkable for containing petrified reeds. The same kind of 

 reeds are found in abed at the top of the cliff opposite High- Whitby, 

 probably corresponding with that of the Stainton cliffs, though infierior 

 in hardness, and not so much elevated above the alum rock. 



Many of the sandstone beds furnish excellent materials for the 

 purposes of architecture. The freestone quaiTies of Sleights, Uggle- 

 barnby, and Aislaby, are the most noted in the vicinity of Whitby. 

 In these quarries, and many others in the strata over the alum schist, 

 are massive beds of great thickness, from whence blocks are cut out 

 of any size that may be wanted. The huge blocks employed in con- 

 structing the Whitby piers were brought from these quarries, particu- 

 larly those of Aislaby. Great quantities of the same stone have, 

 within these few years, been shipped at Whitby, for the piers of 

 Margate and Ramsgate, the foundations of the Strand bridge at Lon- 

 don, and similar purposes. 



Instances of the discovery of living toads, lodged in cavities 

 within solid blocks of sandstone, have occurred in our district, as in 

 many other places. Some years ago, one was found in a block among 

 the materials used at the Whitby piers. Phenomena of this descrip- 

 tion have been observed in this country at a Very early period. William 

 of Newburgh, in the same chapter in which he mentions the Gipsies-, 

 as formerly noticed, relates among the prodigies of his times, the 

 discovery of a living toad in a block of stone ; but, after the fashion 

 of the monkish writers, he clothes his narrative with more of the 

 marvellous than we can receive. Some men, who were quarrying 

 stone for building, found at a considerable depth a handsome and 

 curious block, apparently composed of two stones closely cemented 



2h 



