DAVIS : CONTOETIONS AT FLAMBOROUGH. 
45 
being very flinty and with scarcely any good soil, while the districts 
south of the great wold valley b}^ Twing, Eudstone. and Boynton 
has but little flint, and forms a deeper and heavier soil. 
The chalk hills or wolds terminate eastwards in Flamborough 
Head. Northwards, the chalk overlies the Neocomian clays of 
Speeton, and southwards dips under the glacial hills and alluvial 
deposits of Holderness. The action of the waves on these softer beds 
has resulted in the formation of bays of considerable extent, whilst the 
hard, massive chalk has resisted the encroachment of the sea and 
forms a bold headland with grand escarpments, which, at Bempton 
and Buckden, attain a height of more than 440 feet. It is in these 
cliffs that the contortions occur. The disturbed portion of the 
strata extends for a distance of about 300 yards, and from the 
summit to the base of the cliff the chalk is bent, folded, and 
crushed in every conceivable manner. The appearance is rendered 
more remarkable by the contrast this part of the cliff presents to 
that extending north-westwards or south-eastwards, in which the 
strata exhibits only a slight and uniform inclination southwards. 
The Photograph, No. 1, exhibits the whole of the contorted 
section exposed in the cliff. To the left of the section the chalk 
extends in nearly horizontal layers ; it first makes a sharp curvature 
downwards to the north at an angle varying from 45° to 60^^, as 
shown in the photograph. The beds vary in thickness from a few 
inches to 6 or 8 feet at this point ; but further to the right or N.W., 
where the disturbance has been greatest, the beds become thhmer. 
From the level of the sands, which may be discerned forming a 
narrow strip between the base of the cliff, and the masses of large 
boulders in the foreground, to the summit, a height at this point of 
275 feet, the layers of chalk may be seen dipping at the angle 
indicated above with great regularity. Suddenly the layers resume 
a horizontal position, and a huge mass at the base of the cliff, though 
in its natural position, has the appearance of having slipped from the 
inclined strata above into a horizontal position on the sands. The 
horizontal arrangement extends to about half the height of the 
cliff: the upper portion gradually assuming an upward inclination 
at an angle at first obtuse then a right angle. The strata next 
