26 



Derbyshire chain which overhangs the great plain of Cheshire. 

 For example, many large smooth bowlders of' primitive or tran- 

 sition rocks lie scattered over the surface of the ground on both 

 sides of the high pass leading from Buxton to Macclesfield. 

 These facts speak the same language with those which f have 

 already quoted. They show the generality of the causes which 

 have produced the superficial detritus; and they prove that then- 

 operations have not been confined to the lower parts of our 

 island. 



Western Moors, Centra/ Plains, u//d East Coast of Yorkshire* 



III. In my former paper I briefly noticed the great accumula- 

 tion of coarse grave] on the plains which skirt the western moors 

 of Yorkshire. Had this gravel been formed by a number of 

 lakes which Were once pent up among the mountains, and after- 

 wards buret their way into the lower regions of the district, we 

 might expect to find traces of such lakes in the interior of the 

 moorlands, and distinct heaps of gravel marking the devastations 

 produced by the discharge of the successive lakes into the plain 

 of the new red sandstone. We, however, find no indications of 

 such lakes; and the diluvial rubbish is spread out almost 

 uniformly over the central plain by some cause which appears to 

 have acted simultaneously, and which has left traces of its 

 operation from the southern extremity of Yorkshire to the month 

 of the Tees. 



Every part of the Yorkshire coast and whole neighbouring 

 region bearj witness to the operation of similar causes. The 

 numberless valleys of denudation in the eastern moorlands— the 

 immense accumulation of transported materials on the hills as 

 well as in the valleys — the whole contour of the vale of Picker- 

 ing— -the enormous cap of diluvium containing rounded masses 

 of primitive rocks many tons weight, and resting on the chalk 

 hills near Flamborough Head — the external form of the Wolds 

 — and the continuous mass of diluvium extending from Bridling- 

 ton to Spurn Head, and from the chalk downs to the sea, are 

 so many monuments of the gigantic powers which were let loose 

 upon the world during the epoch of the diluvial gravel. In the 

 summer of 1821, I had an opportunity of examining all these 

 phenomena in detail; and I can bear unqualified testimony to the 

 faithfulness of the descriptions given of them by the author of 

 the " Reliquiae Dftuviarue."* 



The diluvium of Holderness is of great interest, partly from its 

 immediate connexion with a series of operations which have 

 affected all the neighbouring districts ; partly also from its occu- 

 pying the whole line of coast, and from its enormous thickness, 

 which enable us to examine with detail all the circumstances 



♦ See the " RtUfnm DtZrofaue, p. 191, 194. 



