LAMPLUGH : NOTES ON THE WHITE CHALK OF YORKSHIRE. 177 
taken from the top of the cliff near Waiidale Nab, looking west- 
north-west. Tlie height of the nearer cliff is 290 feet, and that of 
the farther, 300 to 325 feet. The out-standing perforated buttress 
facing the observer bears the name of Scale Nab on the Ordnance 
Map, but is more usually known as The Staple, and the little bay in 
front of it as Staple Nook. The whole of the cliff seen in this view is 
composed of the flint-bearing Middle Chalk, with an attenuated cap- 
ping of drift. The coast on the northern side of Filey Bay and the 
high ground behind it, made up of Jurassic rocks, is dimly seen on 
the distant horizon. 
This picture brings out admirably the striking contrast there is 
between the tame featureless chalk plateau and the boldness of the 
great vertical walls which bound it. In the sharp truncation of the 
plateau by the cliffs we realise how much land the sea must have 
torn away in spite of the unyielding nature of the rock. At this 
place the edge of the Bempton Valley lies a little way inland. 
The moundy drifts which hug the top of the ridge can just be seen at 
the left hand margin of the picture. 
The chief geological interest of the view, however, centres in the 
magnificent contortions visible in the nearer cliff, though these are 
not very clearly seen in a picture on so small a scale. These con- 
tortions were well illustrated by three large autot}^e photographs 
issued by our Society in 1885, accompanied by a short descriptive 
account from the pen of our late Secretary, Mr. J. W. Davis.* 
The disturbance sets in suddenly a little to the left of the section 
seen in No. 3, and dies out as suddenly on the farther side of The 
Staple. For a space of about 200 yards the whole height of the cliff 
shows the strata plunging steeply this way and that in a series of 
sharp folds. Both eastward and westward of this place the beds lie 
quite regularly with a very gentle dip southward. It is not improbable 
that these contortions are accompanied by a fault, but there is no very 
satisfactory proof of this,t and the amount of throw cannot be great. 
In various parts of the headland the slickensides on the joint-faces 
exhibit indications of slight horizontal movement, and sometimes the 
* Proc. Yorksh. Geol. and Polytech. Soc, vol. ix. , p. 4.3. 
t See discussion on this point in " Xotes on the White Chalk." Proc. Yorksh. 
Geol. and Polytech. Soc, vol. xiii. , p. 73. 
