66 
DESCRIPTION OF THE COAST. 
Ft. In. 
Alternating shale and white sandstone bands ... 9 0 
Sandstone ... ... ... ••• ••• 6 0 
Shale and thin sandstones ... ... ••• 8 0 
Sandstone, slaty ... ... ••• ••• 2 6 
Coal and irony knots with shale ... ... ... 10 0 
White sandstone ... ... ... ••• 2 0 
Shale ... ... ... ... ... 6 0 
Wedge-shaped grit rocks, from 20 to 30 feet. 
White sandstone and coal, with vertical pipe marks, 
from 5 to 20 feet. 
Shale 4 0 
White sandstone ... ... ••• ••• 2 0 
Shale ... .- 4 0 
Layers of sandstone ... ... ••• 3 0 
Shale ... ... ••• ••• ... 12 0 
Here a coal adit enters into the face of the cliff. 
White sandstone and plants ... ... 2 0 
Irony or dogger bed ... ... ••• ••• 2 0 
Alum shale ... ... ••• ••• 30 0 
At a point called High Whitby, two hundred and eiglity-five feet 
above high-water, the cap rock is upon the top, and ten or more alter- 
nations of shale and sandstones may be observed between it and the 
lias. A sandstone bed, seventy-four feet below the summit of the cliff, 
is remarkable for containing a great number of cylindrical fossil plants, 
jointed across like canes, or rather like equiseta, and furnished with a 
denticulated striated fringe or sheath at every joint. They are called 
by Mr. Konig, Oncylogonatum, by M. Brongniart, Equisetum colum- 
nare. They are situated vertically in the beds of sandstone, are broken 
off or imperfect above, and seldom reach to the upper surface of the 
bed ; they are also broken off below, but commonly pass to the lower 
surface, and some of the lower joints nearest the roots are found in 
the subjacent bed of shale. These appearances have led some persons 
to conjecture that the plants are preserved in the place of their growth ; 
that the shale served them for soil, and that they were buried by an 
influx of sand and water. A more probable hypothesis, perhaps, will 
suggest itself to those who have seen plants transported by great floods, 
