282 GENERAL OBSERVATIONS. 



The surface gives no clear indication of the bendings of the strata be- 

 tween Whitby and Hawsker Bottoms, or even of the great break at 

 Peak. A few contortions and denudations have indeed occurred in 

 the alluvial beds themselves, as we found on the Holderness coast 

 (see p. 19, and PI. I); but the contortions and breaks of the regular 

 strata have all, or almost all, preceded the deposition of the alluvium. 

 In fact, the alluvial beds appear to be composed of materials derived 

 from breaks and denudations. 



6. Our vales, river courses, bays, and creeks, have been formed 

 chiefly by such breaks and denudations. — Some eminent geological 

 writers have maintained, that the valleys have been formed by the 

 streams which flow in them; that every river has hollowed out its 

 own channel in the hills through which it passes; that bays and inlets 

 on the shore have been excavated by rivers, and by the action of the 

 sea; and that the alluvial beds, even in the highest situations, have 

 been deposited by rivers, that once flowed there. The phenomena 

 which our district exhibits, can by no means be reconciled with such 

 notions. The agency of rivers has indeed had a considerable effect 

 in modifying their channels, but the channels have derived their origin 

 from breaks and denudations of the strata; to which also, the inden- 

 tations of the coast are principally owing. This is so much the case, 

 that we observe some dislocation of the strata, at almost every bay and 

 inlet on the coast, and at the mouth of almost every stream that runs 

 into the ocean. The Esk did not cut its way into the sea through our 

 rocky cliffs, but its channel was opened by a vast break in the strata, 

 and by the denudation or washing away of the loose materials, disen- 

 gaged by the shock which this dislocation produced. The river may 

 have filled up some hollows and inequalities of its original channel, 

 but it cannot have excavated those extensive and diversified dales 

 through which it runs. This is obvious, from the circular shape of 

 some of them, as that of Ruswarp; from their general form and 



