PEAT ‘DEPOSIT: «AT: ‘FILEY. 
Rev. E. MAULE COLE, M.A., F.G.S. 
ANYONE who will take the trouble to walk along the sands of 
the Holderness Coast will see, in many places, on the top of the 
Boulder Clay cliffs, which line the shore, certain stratified deposits 
of pearly-grey clay, from r to 2 or 3 ft. thick, which mark the beds 
of old dried-up lakes or meres. On examining this clay it is found 
to consist largely of the comminuted remains of fresh-water shells. 
e€ meres, in which they accumulated by sediment, were at one 
time far from the shore-line, but by the wearing back of the cliffs by 
denudation have been exposediin section. The length of these lacus- 
trine deposits varies from some thirty yards to a quarter of a mile. 
In a few instances, notably at Skipsea, the clay is found covered 
with an accumulation of peat, several feet thick, the lower portion 
being compact, the upper fibrous containing roots and branches 
of trees; and in all cases remains of nuts. Bones of the elk, 
deer, and ox have been found in the peat. 
Let us now turn to Filey. In the spring of the present year, 
a visitor, who wisely employed his time in studying Geological 
Rambles in Yorkshire, heard that the author was spending a few 
days in that interesting locality. He called and informed me that 
he had made a discovery in the cliffs close to Filey, which claimed 
my attention. On proceeding to the spot, within a couple of 
hundred yards of the sea-wall on the south, I found the face of. 
the cliff covered with the débris of a peat bed, which had recently 
been shot down from above. On climbing the cliff, about 70 ft. 
high, a fine section of peat, in the centre, over 6 ft. thick, was 
found exposed, resting on a bed of stiff pearly-grey clay, 2 ft. thick. 
Underneath this was another foot of peat resting on boulder clay. 
This is very different from the section given by Phillips, wea 
years ago, of the same lacustrine deposit, which is as follows 
‘It consists of light-blue clay, peaty clay, blue clay, white dis: 
and peat, altogether 4 ft. thick, upon sand and gravel. A 
the reason is not far to seek, for in the course of sixty years the 
cliffs must have. receded sixty yards or more, and he is describing 
the outer edge of the old lake bottom, as it then appeared, which 
contained scarcely any peat, whereas, now, denudation has exposed 
the mass of peat mentioned above. The ‘sand and gravel’ ween 
he speaks of has disappeared, having played out its part i 
causing the disaster which has strewn the face of the cliff oe 
large masses of peat, for doubtless the percolation of rain-water 
Jan. 1891. B 
