Seaside Resorts {Filey) 



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perhaps, more than twenty feet high, and upon it rests (the 

 distinction between the two being as abrupt as possible) a 

 great mass of clay cliffs. The latter are more than a hundred 

 feet in thickness and look all alike, that is, there is no trace 

 of layers. 



This clay is again the glacial clay, comparatively a quite 

 recent deposit, and having no relation whatever in point of 

 time with the hard sandstone rocks on which it rests. The 

 latter were formerly covered with chalk in great thickness, 

 which, however, was wholly removed before the clay was 

 deposited on the denuded surface. The spot where the rock 

 emerges from under the clay makes a sort of angle, and 

 compels us to turn to the right. Soon we find ourselves 

 walking not on sand but on rock, the latter being in many 

 places fairly level. We are now on what is technically known 

 as an Oolitic stratum, below both chalk and greensand. It 

 contains abundance of fossils, but it is so hard that they are 

 not easy to get out. Passing onwards, on to the Brig itself, 

 we find that it is made up of similar rock, which slopes a 

 little downwards towards the south and the east and presents 

 abrupt ledges to the north-west. It is well to remember that 

 this is the general slope of all the strata in England, and that, 

 as a consequence, when you pass to the west and north you are 

 constantly leaving strata of recent formation and going on to 

 those which are much older. This lesson will be strengthened 

 by turning the corner of the cliff at the foot of the Brig, 

 looking towards Scarborough, and observing that the strata 

 now gradually slope upwards. The masses of broken rock 

 which lie about the foot of the Brig should be looked at. 

 Some of them will be seen to present in very conspicuous 

 demonstration the peculiar branching concretions which have 

 so much puzzled geologists in the cliffs at Hunstanton. 

 Respecting these there has been and still is much doubt as 

 to whether they represent organisms or are merely the results 

 of concretion from water. 



Having turned the corner of the Brig, and walking past 



