154 DESCRIPTION OF THE STRATA. 



strata disappear, and the bay is skirted by an alluvial cliff, till we 

 reach Runswick. 



Here a very considerable break of the strata must have occurred, 

 though it is concealed by alluvium; for instead of meeting in the 

 Runswick cliffs the compact shale, as at Hob-hole, we find only the 

 upper part of the main bed of alum shale, covered by the dogger, and 

 by very thick beds of sandstone and sandy schist. The longitudinal 

 slip, formerly mentioned, partly conceals the state of the strata at 

 Runswick ; yet we can see clearly, that they I'ise towards the north, 

 or north-west : so that the back part of Runswick bay is, to a certain 

 degree, another centre of subsidence. 



Proceeding along the shore from Runswick, we find the strata 

 rising with considerable regularity ; the lias bands, the compact shale, 

 and the ironstone bands, successively appearing below, while some 

 of the upper strata disappear above. But on approaching the village 

 of Staiths, at the opening of the valley or ravine of Dalehouse, we 

 see the progress of the strata again interrupted. The sandstone beds 

 above the dogger are lost ; the dogger itself, after growing very thin, 

 wears out; and the whole schistose strata above the sandstone bands 

 are discontinued in the valley ; so that the sandstone bands, which 

 we have called the Staiths beds, may be seen at the village, forming 

 the channel of Dalehouse beck, and appearing in the lower part of 

 the cliffs. These sandstone beds, corresponding with those which 

 sink at the north cheek of Robin Hood's Bay, make their appearance 

 on the scar, a few yards to the east of Staiths. 



Just before we reach that spot, we meet with a succession of 

 breaks in the strata, indicating, that the valley which separates the 

 second range of alum hills from the third, like that which divides the 

 the first from the second, has been formed by a subsidence of the 

 whole strata, as well as by a washing away of the upper strata. One 

 of these breaks, not far from a singular bluff point to the east of 



