LIAS CLIFFS. 
65 
little more than a mile from Baytown ; the marlstone beds have all 
disappeared in about two miles, and from thence to Whitby the shore is 
kept by the upper lias shale. So great is the depression, that, between 
Hawsker bottoms and the place called High Whitby, the carbonaceous 
sandstones above the lias stoop very nearly to the water. The solid beds 
of sub-calcareous sandstone and ironstone, (which constitute the marlstone 
series), form prominent scars where they sink into the sea, and their 
blocks, which are scattered at the foot of the cliffs, may be advanta- 
geously examined for fossils. The highest point of the coast between Bay- 
town and High Whitby, (two hundred and seventy-five feet,) is marked 
by the termination of the dogger series. This irony sandstone, though 
at Blue Wick on the south of Robin Hood’s Bay it is so rich in fossils, 
does not here contain a single shell, and is very thin ; but the sandstones 
which succeed above contain the same plants as at the Peak. To 
convey an accurate idea of the succession of strata above the lias, and 
beneath the cap sandstone, the following details, at points marked in the 
section, will be found sufficient. 
At the point where a road leads down the cliff from Hawsker 
bottoms, we find the lias shale covered by fifty feet of sandstone, coal, 
shale, and dogger, arranged in the following order : 
Strong slaty gritstone. Shale. Strong slaty gritstone. Shale. Slaty sandstone. 
Coal seam. Shale and gritstone, with marks of coal. Alternations of sandstone and 
shale. Irony bed or dogger. Upper shale, 100 feet. 
At a point nearer High Whitby, the series of sandstones and shales 
is much more complicated ; the following account was very carefully 
written on the spot. 
Coal .. 
Grit, with vertical carbonaceous marks (coal pipes) 
Irregular sandstone 
Shale and ironstone 
Sandstone 
Loose blocks, sandstone, ironstone, shale, &c. 
Ft. In. 
20 0 
0 8 
4 0 
5 0 
12 0 
3 0 
K 
