18 
HOLDERNESS. 
on these sides it is exposed to a turbulent sea, which its loose materials 
are ill calculated to resist. Its greatest length is somewhat less than 
forty miles, and its extreme breadth about sixteen. It includes about 
three hundred and eighty square miles of surface, of which, perhaps, 
seventy square miles are marshland, relinquished by the sea, according 
to a regular process of nature, or reclaimed by the enterprising industry 
of man. The remainder of the surface, though, on a general view from 
the wold-hills above, it appears like one extended plain, is found, on closer 
inspection, to be remarkably undulated ; and though no land in the 
whole district exceeds one hundred and forty feet in height, yet, as the 
valleys are often sunk to the level of the sea, the hills assume a degree of 
importance which a stranger would by no means expect. 
The long straight line of its coast, which is so remarkable a feature 
in the topography of Holderness, furnishes the most advantageous op- 
portunity of examining its geological structure ; for these cliffs, daily 
wasted by the sea, exhibit distinct sections of nearly all the materials 
that exist in the country. The drains which intersect the marshland, 
and the wells which have been found necessary in a country having few 
natural springs, complete the facilities for its investigation. 
There is, perhaps, hardly any district in the island, which displays in 
so striking a light the powerful effects of diluvial torrents as Holderness ; 
for in this country accumulations, from this cause, compose the whole mass 
of every hill, and form the deep foundation of every marsh. In the cliffs 
of the coast and in the gravel-pits of the interior, remains of antediluvian 
animals are frequently met with, and the interest which these discoveries 
cannot fail to excite is increased by the abundance of the alluvial deposits 
which have happened in the same country at various subsequent periods, 
and contain the bones of animals of a more recent date. The remains of 
creatures overwhelmed by the flood, and of those which perished after it, 
lie here not far asunder, ; the circumstances attending their destruction 
may be deliberately examined, and the contemplative mind is presented 
with a physical record of the principal changes to which the surface of the 
earth has been exposed, from those early periods to the present day. 
