128 The Museum Gazette 



&c. You can walk on the top of the cliff in each direction, 

 either north or south, and in both directions you will be upon 

 clay. There is a bridge over the northern ravine close to the 

 fine old church which is the pride of Filey. In order to get a 

 view of the cliffs you must go down on to the sand, but before 

 doing so notice that the bay of Filey is very large, and that, 

 looking out to sea, it is bounded on your right hand by a far- 

 extending promontory which stretches nearly to Flamborough 

 Head, and in which the white gleam of chalk can easily be 

 seen in places. The boundary of the bay on the left hand 

 is much nearer the town, and ends, after about a couple of 

 miles, in a rocky projection known as the Brig. The sands, 

 as in most half-enclosed bays, are extensive and flat. They 

 are firm and have no mud. As they have no rocks so there 

 is scarcely any seaweed and very few pebbles. Shells also 

 are very scarce. Excepting for bathers, riders, bicyclists, and 

 children with spades, it is not possible to imagine sands more 

 unattractive than those of Filey Bay. If you walk towards 

 Flamborough Head you must, if you wish to sit down, take 

 your campstool with you, for there is not a bit of rock or a 

 sand hillock. High tides come up to the base of the cliff, and 

 the latter is clay. It is glacial clay, but it contains scarcely 

 any stones, and consequently yields nothing for the shore. 

 This glacial-clay cliff extends in this direction much further 

 than most would like to walk. Where it ends chalk strata 

 begin. It is in the other direction that the beauties of Filey 

 must be sought. It is the Brig which has made Filey so 

 deservedly attractive. 



Let the observer stand on the shore half-way between the 

 town and the Brig, and look toward the latter. On his left 

 hand are the clay cliffs, but coming out from under these, 

 straight before him, he will see a level line of a totally 

 different structure. It is a hard rock arranged somewhat in 

 layers, and presenting a series of little excavations caused by 

 the sea. Although running almost horizontally, it yet rises 

 a little to the right, that is, towards the Brig. It is nowhere, 



