388 MR. G. W. LAMPLTTGH ON THE 



village which stands in it. East of Buckton, for about two miles, 

 the cliff has not been cut back far enough to reach the summit 

 of the ridge bounding the valley ; but this is only a few hundred 

 yards inland ; and in approaching Flamborough, the valley-slopes 

 are once more directly encroached upon. 



The pre-Glacial course of the Bempton Yalley seems to have been 

 along the whole length of the headland, and its deep channel may 

 still be seen buried beneath the drift at the easternmost point, near 

 the Lighthouse, and elsewhere (see PI, XIII. hg. 8). This channel 

 was blocked during early Glacial times, and its drainage seems after- 

 wards chiefly to have made its escape through the broad hollow in the 

 Chalk at Danes' Dyke (PI. XIII. jBg. 5), a slender stream still, in wet 

 seasons rising near Bempton, and finding the sea by this route. The 

 relation of the drift deposits to the Bempton Yalley is very curious, 

 for while they are piled along the summit of its seaward edge, and 

 also across its mouth, to a depth often exceeding 80 feet, on the 

 slopes and at even lower elevations in the centre of the depression 

 they dwindle to a thin covering rarely more than three or four feet 

 in thickness. 



On the south side of the headland the slope of the land is always 

 towards the sea, except, as at Beacon Hill (PI. XIII. fig. 6), where a 

 drift-mound chances to stand at the edge of the cliff. This incline 

 was evidently more strongly marked before the deposition of the 

 Glacial beds, which are, in most cases, banked upon it and partially 

 obliterate it. 



At Bridlington Quay, in the south-west corner of the area, the 

 largest valley of the Wolds reaches the sea. This, known as the 

 valley of the Gypsey, or the Main Wold Yalley, has a length of over 

 twenty miles, and a drainage basin of about 8(^ square miles, com- 

 mencing near Wharram, close to the western edge of the Wolds. 

 The ground in the neighbourhood of Speeton, which lies beyond the 

 head of the Bempton Yalley (just west of the limits of the sketch- 

 map, fig. 1), slopes westward towards this great valley, and any 

 drainage flowing from the crest of the escarpment there would go 

 three miles westward, and then southward and eastward for eight 

 or nine miles till it reached the sea at Bridlington. It is probable 

 that in Glacial times a large volume of water, issuing from the edge 

 of the ice upon the escarpment, followed this course. At present 

 the only water coming down the valley is an insignificant beck, the 

 Gypsey Race, whose waters are, in dry seasons, entirely swallowed 

 up by the thick and widespread sheets of ancient valley-gravel. 



Only the lower reaches of the Main Wold Yalley seem to have 

 been occupied by ice during the Glacial period, at which time there 

 was probably an accumulation of the drainage in its upper portion 

 in the form of a temporary glacier- dammed lake. 



Long after the disappearance of the ice, the mouth of tbe valley 

 at Bridlington Quay seems still to have been blocked by Glacial 

 deposits, so that its waters were diverted southwards across the 

 Holderness plain, to follow a long and sluggish course till they 

 reached the Humber. Part of its route at this period is still well 



