CiRC, No. 62. 



The District 



appointed for investigation is that portion of the headland of Flam- 

 borough which lies East of the Danes' Dyke. 



Books and Maps. 



The whole district is in Sheets 95 S.E. and 94 N.E., i-inch Ord- 

 nance Maps (which are both to be had geologically coloured). 

 Further information on geology is given in Phillips' Geology of the 

 Yorkshire Coast, Cole's Geological Rambles in Yorkshire, and Blake's 

 Chalk of Yorkshire (Proc. Geol. Ass., Jan., 1878). For Vertebrate 

 Zoology, reference may be made to Clarke and Roebuck's Handbook 

 of Yorkshire Vertebrata and Cordeaux's Birds of the Humber Dis- 

 trict, in both of which numerous captures of rare birds and marine 

 fishes are on record. 



Geology. 

 The Rev. E. Maule Cole, M.A., writes; — Viewed from Bridlington 

 Quay, Flamborough Head presents a long low line of white chalk 

 cliffs, capped with boulder clay, stretching out to sea some six miles, 

 and affording a safe protection against storms from the N. or N.E. 

 The shore-line of what is known as Bridlington Bay, composed of 

 boulder clay, is rapidly receding from the attacks of the waves ; in 

 fact, the sea is regaining what it has lost. For, previous to the Great 

 Ice Age, the sea occupied all the area now called Holderness, and the 

 ancient cliff ran inland in the direction of Burton Agnes, Craike Hill, 

 and Hessle. A mile north of the Quay, on approaching Sewerby, 

 this ancient cliff may still be traced trending landward, covered more 

 or less with rain-wash and sand, wherein the bones of mammals of 

 the Pleistocene age have been disinterred. 



The south face of the chalk of Flamborough Head is pretty uni- 

 form, probably because little exposed to heavy storms, but immediately 

 on turning the corner and facing N. and N.E., the chalk is broken up 

 into caves, coves, and columns. The force of the waves, aided by 

 the tremendous artillery of stones and sand, has cut, bored, and 

 polished the rocks as if done by machinery. The chalk on the S. 

 and N. side of Flamborough Head is very different in many ways. 

 On the south side it is comparatively soft, though not nearly so soft 

 as in the South of England, and fairly fossiliferous. The beds about 

 Danes' Dyke (an ancient British entrenchment extending from shore 

 to shore, piled up on the top of a natural ravine) are formed of the 

 upper flintless chalk, and contain a great quantity of sponges, chiefly 

 Ventriculites, and a number of Marsupites, and the characteristic 

 belemnite, Belemnitella inucronata. 



The flints (nodular and tabular) begin to come on on turning the 

 extreme corner of the Head. The chalk becomes harder and the 

 fossils more rare. Here, as at Danes' Dyke, may be seen traces of a 

 pre-glacial valley, filled in with Boulder Clay, which, in its turn, is 

 being rapidly denuded. In Selwick Bay, commonly called Silex Bay 

 (though the former spelling is probably the correct form), a mass of 

 Blue Speeton Clay has been stranded, as a boulder, on the top of the 

 Chalk, and an interesting fault occurs, long known to Messrs. Mor- 

 timer and Cole, and recently described by Mr. G. W. Lamplugh.* 

 Further on, towards the North Landing, the King and Queen rocks 



* Proceedings of the Yorkshire Geological Society, 1880. 



