150 DESCRIPTION OF THE STRATA. 



at the point which terminates the north cheek of the bay. These 

 sandstone strata are succeeded by the Kettleness beds, consisting of 

 12 or 13 bands of ironstone, in seams or rows of nodules. The 

 Sandsend bands follow, and then the main bed of alum shale, which 

 occupies from 180 to 200 feet. The dogger at last appears at the top, 

 and is surmounted by beds of sandstone and shale, with seams of 

 coal. While these higher strata resume their places, the lower beds 

 gradually sink beneath the sea, till the dogger itself descends close 

 to the beach, opposite Gnipe-houe ; where, as was formerly noticed, 

 the sandstone beds acquire a vast thickness, and even the blue lime- 

 stone of Cloughton wyke is found in the high ground, at some dis- 

 tance from the sea clift'^ Beyond this point, the dogger and the alum 

 shale rise again, and attain a considerable height in the cliffs of 

 High Whitby and Saltwick ; so that, in a few places, some part of 

 the Sandsend or lias bands may be seen on the scar. Between Salt- 

 wick and Whitby, the dogger again descends to high water mark ; but 

 it rises again to the height of 60 feet, or upwards, before it arrives at 

 Whitby harbour. 



At the mouth of Whitby harbour, in the bed of the Esk, we come 

 to the second great slip in these strata. The alum shale proceeds to 

 the middle of the current, more than half way across the harbour, 

 and there terminates abruptly, nothing but sandstone rocks being 

 found on the other side. To what depth the strata on the west or 

 north-west side of the harbour have sunk, cannot be very correctly 

 estimated, especially as the sandstone beds are so variable, that it is 

 difficult to trace the correspondence between those on the one side of 

 the slip, and those on the other : but as the sandstone beds that come 

 doww to the beach at the battery appear to correspond, either with 

 the highest beds of the east cliff, or with a higher portion of the sand- 

 stone strata there wanting, we can scarcely reckon the amount of the 

 ^lip less than 100 feet. 



