43 
ON THE COXTOETTONS IN THE CHALK AT FLAMBOEOUGH HEAD. 
BY JAMES W. DAVIS, F.G.S., ETC. 
The Photographs issued with the volume of proceedings for the 
current year illustrate a series of gigantic contortions in the Chalk 
at Flaraborough Head in Yorkshire. Between the eastern extremity 
of the Head, where the Lighthouse is placed and the Speeton Cliffs, 
is a distance of about 6 miles, and the part of the cliff from which 
the Photograph is taken is nearly midway between the two, at a 
place designated Staple Nook, a small bay in the Bempton Cliffs. 
The northern shore of the bay is formed by a promontory of the 
chalk which has been pierced and forms an archway : this is called 
on the ordnance map Scale Nab. The opposite extremity of the bay 
is formed by a series of arched rocks which is styled ' Old Door,' the 
popular name amongst the fishermen is always * Staple nook.' The 
Cliffs at this part of the coast are quite inacessable, and the sea * 
washes up to their base at every tide. North and south of the 
contorted strata at Staple Nook, the sea never leaves the perpendic- 
ular face of the Cliff which descends sheer into the water to a 
considerable depth below the tide at low water mark. The only 
means by which access can be got to this part of the beach is by boat 
from the North Landing at Flamborough, and only thence in fair 
weather. The great cliffs, beautiful in their stupendous grandeur, 
and the sunken and treacherous rocks extending seawards at their 
feet, demand the exercise of caution in venturing amongst their 
concealed dangers except when the sea is calm and the sky clear. 
Under favourable circumstances a visit to the contorted chalk will 
be found not only instructive, but extremely enjoyable. At North 
Landing the chalk cliffs have dipped down to a very moderate 
thickness, but this is compensated by the great thickness of the 
superincumbent Boulder Clays, worn by the action of the rain and 
frost into ridges and peaks of peculiar and fantastic forms. Further 
west where the chalk increases in thickness, the glacial clays become 
proportionately thin. The contours at Thornwick are very fine, as 
