424 



THE GEOLOGIST. 



thick, and remarkable drift, cliicfly cousistiiig of vast muUitudes of 

 Gryphm mcurva, in a rolled and broken state, with a small proportion 

 of bits of chalk-flints from the Wold. This drift, which represents tho 

 destruction of the '^gryphite-zone," underlies the lane for nearly two 

 miles, and the number of its gryphites is beyond all belief. Again, 

 close by, at the village of Everthorpe, there is a deep cutting through u 

 drift which is entirely of chalk; and a wide-spread covering of commi- 

 nuted chalk-flints, small enough to be used for gravel, overlies the Lias 

 under and around all the east, and south, and west of ISTorth Cave. 



These various beds of Local Drift," deposited so very near together, 

 are remarkably distinct from, and independent of each other. We can 

 say with certainty whence each was derived ; but, as I have never seen 

 them in superposition, I can give no clue at present to their relative 

 ages. They appear to enclose only such organic remains as appertain 

 to their native rocks ; and the Liassic portions are so strictly local, that 

 they may almost have been destroyed and re-arranged in the places 

 where we now find them. There has been a similar destruction of the 

 ''Gryphite-bed;" on the other side of the Humber, at Whitton, where 

 the debris is precisely of corresponding appearance ; and, speculating 

 sometimes upon the origin of these drifts, I have been inclined to 

 attribute them to the action of the river, at a time when it flowed 

 much higher than it does now, — a time of which there is ample 

 evidence along its shores. This, however, be it said, is a mere 

 speculation, and must be taken accordingly at what it may be worth ; 

 for this kind of drift is generally dif&cult of explanation, and not 

 less so here than in other districts. 



{To he continued. J 



