348 LAMPLUGH : ox THE SUPPOSED RAISE1> BEACH AT SALTBURX. 
The coast from Saltburn to Redcar is exposed to all winds between 
north-west and north-east, and at low tide these winds cross broad 
tracts of bare sand before reaching the cliff, with the result that sand 
is driven up far above high -water mark on the lower slopes of any 
crumbling bank of drift that fronts the shore. Even where the cliff 
rises well over the 100 ft. contour, north-west of the Hazel Grove ravine, 
its sloping portions are veneered quite to the tojj with blown sand. 
The presence of sporadic marine shells in the sand of the terrace 
is no proof tbat it is an old beach. The smaller shells — Lachesis and 
Cfjpraea — are of kinds readily blown by the wind, while the heavier 
shells are such as may have been distributed by sea-birds and by 
man, whose agency is clearly indicated by the burnt stones mentioned 
above. Anyone who has scrambled about on the steep grassy slopes 
that front the sea in many of the little bays of the Yorkshire coast 
will remember how common it is to find accidentally transported shells 
and shell-fragments upon them, and, in consequence, how careful one 
has to be, in searching for shells in the drift deposits, to distinguish 
between these and the true drift-shells. The fact that some shells 
similar to those in the supposed beach-sand are present also in the 
clayey rain-wash of the slope, as I have mentioned in describing the 
sections, is further evidence for the accidental distribution of the 
shells ; and the ' shell-pockets " on the Old Saltburn slope were seen 
to be, beyond doubt, artificial. 
The terrace-feature which has perhaps afforded hitherto the most 
generally-accepted presumptive evidence for the supposed beach 
remains to be dealt with : and I think that it can be very simply and 
satisfactorily explained. It is almost certainly an old erosion-terrace 
of Skelton. Beck, before the ravine was cut down to its present level 
and when its mouth lay to the seaward of its present position. Below 
^the point, over half a mile inland, where the beck leaves a narrow rock- 
gorge, a wide trough has been carved entirely in the Glacial drifts ; 
and all along this trough (now the picturesque Pleasure Grounds of 
Saltburn) there are remnants of old erosion-flats, here and there at 
various levels, marking stages of the down-cutting. Close to its 
present mouth the valley expands, owing to the confluence of two small 
streams on the eastern side, which have cut the deep gullies in drift 
known respectively as Saltburn Gill and Little Dale. As is usual 
under such .conditions, the terracing of the main valley has been 
accentuated around the confluence ; and the small embavment on the 
