132 Sheppard : The Making of East Yorkshire. 



through the soft chalk. Eventually the ocean carried on the 

 work orig-inally started by the river, and between what is now 

 the continent and Britain a g-radually widening- arm of the sea 

 was formed. 



On the west would be a long- line of chalk cliffs. These 

 receded towards our present shores, until finally a mag-nificent 

 chalk cliff line presented its front to the seas washing- over 

 Holderness. This cliff still exists buried beneath the covering- 

 of glacial drift. At Sewerby the precise spot where the old 

 cliff joins the present one can be seen ; from which place it 

 curves round through Driffield, Beverley, and Hessle, and across 

 into Lincolnshire towards Donna Nook. From Bridlington to 

 Hessle is was roughly 100 ft. in height. At the latter place, 

 during some excavations a few years ago, the old cliff line 

 which had been buried for thousands of years was exposed for 

 a short distance. In those days Holderness, as we now know 

 it, was unknown, and borings for wells, if carefully examined, 

 indicate what we should naturally expect, namely, that the 

 chalk floor under the drift gradually slopes and deepens towards 

 the east. 



The sea having got thus far w^as arrested in its work. The 

 ice age and the debris it ' dumped ' down in this district entirely 

 altered the configuration of the country ; on the melting of the 

 ice the sea renewed its energies, and at the present day is slowly 

 but surely regaining its old cliff line, which has been so long- 

 neglected and hidden away. At the average rate of over two 

 yards per annum the Holderness cliffs are being washed away, 

 and it would not be a difficult matter to estimate the probable 

 number of years required for the sea to regain its former position. 



With regard to this ancient cliff we have much interest- 

 ing information; banked up against the perpendicular face of 

 chalk occurs a series of gravel and sand forming the old beach 

 deposit, upon which is a quantity of angular chalk-wash and 

 blown sand. All these were formed before the advance of the 

 i.ce-sheet, as the glacial drift occurs above them. 



At Sewerby, and more recently at Hessle, excavations have 

 been made in this ancient beach with interesting results. 

 Mixed up amongst the sand and gravel are bones, teeth, 

 and horns of extinct animals ; some of which had been 

 dragged into their position by Hysenas, as they still retain the 

 strong teeth marks of those animals. Amongst the mammals 

 represented in this way are the Elephant, Hippopotamus, 

 Ivhinoceros, Bison, Deer, and Horse. How strange would 



Naturalist, 



