242 
LAMPLUGH : CHALK OF FLAM BE o' HEAD. 
ON A FAULT IN THE CHALK OF FLAMBRO' HEAD, WITH SOME 
NOTES ON THE DEIFT OF THE LOCALITY. BY G. W. LAMP- 
LUGH. 
I wish briefly to place on record the existence of a fault of 
some importance in the Chalk at Flambro' Head, which I do not 
think has been previously noticed, and for which allowance should 
be made in estimating the thickness of the Yorkshire chalk, or in 
attempting' to trace its life-zones. 
The well known Flambro' lighthouses stand near the extreme 
seaward point of Flambro' Head ; and just below them is a little 
bay, if one may dignify by that name a somewhat wider break 
than usual in the line of wave-shaken cliffs, which, for some dis- 
tance on either side of it, form a continuous series of picturesque 
arches, crannies, caves, and rock pillars. 
This break is known by the country folk as Selwicks (pro- 
nounced Sel-icks) Bay. On the Ordnance and most other maps, 
this is written Silex. This is clearly a misnomer. Wicks and 
Wykes abound on our coast — not a mile and a half to the north- 
ward of this place is another and very similar recess, which is 
known as Thornioick; in which again the w is not sounded, except 
by strangers. 
It is in the centre of this ' bay,' that the fault occurs ; indeed 
it is owing to the fault that there is a bay at all, for the strata 
near it are much bent and broken, thus causing a line of compar- 
ative weakness, along which long centuries of toiling waves have 
had their usual effect ; for, as has been pointed out by Professor 
Phillips,* wherever along the range of cliffs the chalk lacks aught 
of its accustomed hardness ; wherever its strata are crumpled 
or shaken ; wherever its flints become less abundant, or the rock 
softer ; there, surely, do the tell-tale waves carve out a bold 
record of it in the beach-line. 
I first came across the fault whilst examining the way in 
which flints make their appearance. Coming north from Brid- 
*Geol. of Yorkshire, 3rd Ed., page 92. 
