BLAKE I EAST YORKSHIRE. 
27 
or whether it began immediately to receive its sediment, we 
cannot be certain. The little Belemnite which so eminently 
characterises it is found throughout the Gault, and the 
Ammonites of both Upper and Lower Gault are found in it. 
Nevertheless, the red chalk lies over some of the Gault near 
Lynn, showing at least that it did not spread to that 
spot till a somewhat later time. But whenever it first 
began to be formed, we can have no good reason to doubt its 
uniform continuance ; and as it is the only bed we have 
in Yorkshire to represent the other southern deposits of the 
Upper Greensand and Chloritic Marl, it must have certainly 
been contemporaneous with them also. 
After having thus been long stationary, the large area in 
question at length gradually sank, soon after the commence- 
ment of that wonderful epoch when the chalk was formed. 
It then became one with the area to the south, and the two 
make one consistent whole ; and yet, notwithstanding their 
general unity, the northern district, including the Yorkshire 
part of it, still remained distinct in minor matters ; and its 
organic remains are to be matched, not so much to the south, 
as to the east in Germany, where the red chalk also preceded 
their enclosing matrix. 
Such is the last of the solid rocks which form the 
backbone of the moors and wolds; and East Yorkshire's 
history, since the time of its formation, has been one of loss 
and trouble — losses, however, which have carved it into 
beauty, and troubles which are an endless source of interest 
to the student of glacial phenomena. 
When the next elevation took place, the northern heights 
had not probably far to rise, and the southern ones came up 
on their old axis; so that where the underlying rocks are 
most absent, there the chalk is highest above the sea. This 
elevation, with its natural dip towards the east, gives to the 
chalk its present position. It was no doubt in this elevation 
