42 
DANES’ DIKE. 
As we proceed northward from Bridlington, the cliff, which near 
the town was twenty-five feet high, and consisted wholly of clay and 
pebbles, sinks to about ten feet, receives a covering of gravel upon 
the clay, and a few layers of lacustrine sediment upon the gravel. Here 
a small stream divides the cliff, and a chalybeate spring, issuing forth 
from the gravel, stains the sand with an abundant ochry deposit. 
Beyond, at a lime-kiln, the cliff is twenty feet high, and consists of 
gravel upon pebbly clay. The gravel abounds in chalk, and contains 
flint, quartz, porphyry, limestone, greenstone, &c. Nearly opposite the 
village of Sowerby, the bottom of the pebbly clay is seen resting on an 
irregular layer of chalk rubble, and the chalk itself rises from beneath, 
and ascends to some height in the cliff, which at this place is between 
seventy and eighty feet high. The beds of chalk rise to the north, and 
as we pass along the shore, other lower and different layers come up in 
succession, and expose a considerable number of fossils ; amongst which 
we may notice sponges of many kinds, commonly called alcyonia, and 
others referred by Mr. Mantell to his genus ventriculites, echinida of the 
genera ananchytes, and spatangus, marsupites ornatus, and apiocrinus 
ellipticus. The marsupites are exceedingly abundant through a consider- 
able thickness of the beds which appear towards the Danes’ Dike ; but 
the plates are generally scattered, owing to the decay of their con- 
necting membranes before they were imbedded. The edges of the chalk 
layers are covered by a quantity of subangular chalk rubble, or gravel, 
mixed with a few rounded pebbles of other rocks : this is usually loose, 
but sometimes hardened into a conglomerate, not unlike that of Stenkrith 
in Westmoreland. Above all lies the usual diluvial mass of clay, pebbles, 
and sand ; from which occasionally fall huge blocks of gneiss and basalt. 
The Danish dike is an earthen rampart, running across the pro- 
montory of Flamborough from one side to the other. The southern part 
of this line follows the eastern side of a narrow and precipitous valley, 
which enters the sea between cliffs one hundred and nine feet high. 
At this place we obtain a clear proof of the high antiquity of valleys in 
the solid strata : for here the strata of chalk are deeply excavated 
beneath the mass of clay, and gravel, and sand, which was swept hither 
