Sheppard : The Making of East Yorkshire. 



appear an assemblage of the forms here represented at Bridling- 

 ton or Hessle now ! 



' Yes, where the huntsman winds his matin horn, 



And the couched Hare beneath the covert trembles ; 

 Where shepherds tend their flocks, and grow their corn ; 



Where fashion in our g-ay parade assembles, 

 Wild Horses, Deer, and Elephants have strayed, 

 Treading- beneath their feet old Ocean's races.' 



This old beach is an example of the pieces of evidence one 

 has to go upon in building up the history of any district. Were 

 it not for the accidental capture of certain animals by Hyaenas in 

 far-off times ; and were it not for the still further accident of 

 the few bones left after the meal being quickly covered up by 

 blown sand ; and the still further accident that the particular 

 sand in question was wedged in the angle between the cliff and 

 the beach, where they were not destroyed by the moving ice 

 mass ; and the still further accident that they were excavated 

 for gravel or for other purposes ; and the yet further circum- 

 stance that geologists happened to see the bones when they 

 were dug out and took care of them ; we should have had no 

 knowledge whatever of these little interesting phases in the 

 history of our district. 



' Seas more late in form and date 



Spredde owre the self-same strande ; 

 And many a chaung-e most wild and straunge 



Reversedd the sea and lande.' 

 ' Thus if v/ee Nature's works exhume, 



Or owre past hystorie raung-e. 

 We find both mann and Nature's doome 

 Is one perpetual chaung-e.' 

 No wonder then that we have many blanks in the geological 

 record, the marvel is that the chain of evidence has so few 

 missing links. 



A careful examination of the nature of this pre-glacial beach 

 gives proof that during its formation some change was going on 

 in the district ; the water seems to have been receding from the 

 cliffs; the animals inhabiting the area indicate colder conditions. 

 In other parts of England the Tertiary deposits most clearly 

 prove that for a long time the climate of this country has been 

 slowly but surely cooling; the proportion of Arctic shells, etc., 

 increases in each newer deposit, until finally the climax is 

 reached in the Great Ice Age. 



For some reason or, other the climate of the Northern 

 Hemisphere had become colder and colder as the centuries 

 rolled on ; small glaciers began to form in the high 



iqo5 May I. 



