CiRC. No. 66. 



Geology and Physical Geography. 



The Rev. E. Maule Cole, M.A., supplies the following notes : — 

 Saltburn is situated at the mouth of one of the beautiful ravines 

 carved out by the becks descending from the Cleveland Hills towards 

 the north and east. In a hollow of the hills a couple of miles to the 

 east of Guisbrough lay an ancient lake. The peaty ground is 

 drained by a beck called Spa Gill, which eventually reaches Saltburn 

 under the name of Skelton Beck. At its exit from the old lake is 

 Slapewath, i.e., slippery ford. On the opposite side another beck 

 flows north-east, called Saltburn Beck, and joins Skelton beck close 

 to Saltburn town, cutting off a mass of boulder clay, known as Cat Nab. 



West of Saltburn there is a flat uninteresting plain, covered now 

 with boulder clay, but to the south and east is beautiful scenery, due 

 to the geological formation. The cliffs from Sandsend to Saltburn 

 are composed of different members of the Lias, and at Rockcliff 

 attain the highest elevation in England, over 680 feet. A large 

 portion of these are capped with Oolitic sandstone, which stretching 

 inland as far as Roseberry Topping, rises to a height of nearly iioo 

 feet. We are speaking only of the moors north of the Esk. The 

 central portion of the moors traversed by the high road from Whitby 

 to Guisbrough is composed of hard Kellaways rock, lying on the top 

 of the above-named Oolite estuary sandstones, and forming an outlier. 

 It is gradually being denuded by the rainfall, as are the oolitic sand- 

 stones on which it rests. The water percolating through these attacks 

 the soft shales of the Lias, and causes innumerable landslips, besides 

 hollowing out ravines in all directions. The harder beds, such as the 

 A. margaritatiis, form crags and terraces on the side of the hills. 



Near Saltburn are some forty iron mines worked in the Cleveland 

 main seam, which occurs in the A. spinatus zone of the Middle Lias. 

 It is estimated that there are 200 square miles of workable ironstone 

 in the district between Eston and Grosmont. 



The geological party will start from Kettleness on Runswick 

 Bay. The view looking across this lovely bay to the quaint old 

 cottages perched on the side of the opposite cliff is very charming 

 and picturesque. Descending the cliff a mile of sand has to be 

 crossed, flanked by crumbling cliffs of boulder clay, filling up a pre- 

 glacial valley. The scar on the north side of the bay belongs to the 

 A. serpentinus, or jet zone, where the aptychi of ammonites are said 

 to be plentiful, though we must confess never to have found one. 

 This zone makes way shortly for the A. anmilatiis zone, consisting 

 of sandy, micaceous ' grey shales,' as far as the south side of Bracken- 

 berry Wyke. Here many nodules may be seen containing the ink- 

 bag of the belemnite, the guard or osselet lying exposed in the shale. 

 Particular attention is called to this fact, as the inkbag is elsewhere 

 rarely found, whereas the guard by itself, the Belemnite fossil, or 

 thunderbolt, is common everywhere in the Secondary rocks. 



At Old Nab, on the north side of Brackenberry Wyke, the A. 

 spinatus zone, the main seam of the Cleveland Ironstone, puts in an 

 appearance, at first forming a terrace at high water mark, 21 feet 

 thick, and then mounting the cliff till over Staithes it attains a height 

 of 150 feet. The A. margaritatus zone now occupies the scars, and 



