FACTS AND INFERENCES. 305 



shale]] and the oolite, have been swept away together between Spee- 

 ton and Filey ; and the aluminous beds and red sandstone have been 

 involved in the same destruction towards the Tees, 



(2) Most of the breaks or dislocations have taken place when 

 the strata were but half consolidated ; so hard as to break, yet so soft 

 as also to bend. This fact deserves particular notice, as being, in our 

 opinion, the most decisive evidence of the point in dispute; especially 

 when viewed in connection with the fact last stated, and with the 

 remarks made above (§ 12) on the induration of the strata. Had the 

 strata been of different ages, we should have fovind at the breaks 

 that pass through sevei-al members of the series, indications of the 

 greater hardness of the lower beds, and softness of the upper, at the 

 time when tLese breaks occurred. But, instead of this, we see in the 

 bends, vindulations, and contortions, accompanying the breaks, indu- 

 bitable proofs, that the beds which are now the hardest were capable 

 of being bent at the era of these dislocations, and the lowest as much 

 as the highest. The undulations in the ironstone and hard sandstone 

 on both sides of Scarborough; those in the sandstone at Haiburn wyke; 

 those in the hard bands of the aluminous strata at Peak and Robin 

 Hood's Bay; and those in the dogger near Saltwick, on the east side 

 of Whitby harbour, and in the sandstone on the west side, may be 

 quoted as examples. They shew, that as the great breaks on the 

 coast run through the entire mass of the strata, wherever they occur, 

 so they must have taken place when every part of the mass was 

 somewhat flexible. In some instances, indeed, the curvature of a bed 

 is partly owing to small cracks or rents ; but independent of such 

 cracks, there is a real bending of the mass of the stratum. — Even the 

 denudations present appearances, indicating that they must have 

 occurred when the strata were but half consolidated ; for it is difficult 

 to explain, on any other principle, the extent to which the hard strata 

 have thus been demolished. — These facts it is impossible to reconcile 



with the formation system. 



4 F 



