142 
BIELBECKS. 
BIELBECKS. 
The diluvial accumulations which cover the red sandstone deposit 
in the vale of York, consist generally of great quantities of gravel and 
fragments of rocks derived from the west and north-west of Yorkshire, 
intermixed with others from the Cumbrian mountains. The relative 
proportion of stones derived from the latter source increases from York 
northward, so that in the gravel near Easingwold, Thirsk, North Aller- 
ton, and Stokesley, a great variety of specimens of rocks may be 
collected, .such as occur about Grasmere, and Patterdale, Kirby Stephen, 
Shap fells, Carrock fell, and High Pike. There is to be observed, 
generally, in the vale of York a distinction of the diluvial deposits 
into three kinds, — one argillaceous and holding a larger proportion of 
pebbles and slightly worn fragments of rocks brought from very dis- 
tant sources ; another a sandy and gravelly deposit in which masses of 
sandstone and limestone from the western regions are more predomi- 
nant ; the third a mass of rounded chalk and angular flint. Near 
York, and along the line of country to the N. West, the gravel consists 
principally of sandstones and limestones from the western hills ; some- 
times sandstone occurs almost alone (Ouseburn) : sometimes a mixture 
of sandstone, limestone, basalt, granite of Shap, Sec. (near Boroughbridge.) 
As we proceed toward Doncaster, and the vale of the Trent, the di- 
luvium consists of materials from the west, and is found to contain very 
few traces of that impulse which brought the Cumbrian rocks over 
Stainmoor, and spread them across the whole N. E. of Yorkshire, and 
along the coast of Holderness. The numerous excavations for the 
roads have laid open the second sort of accumulation more frequently 
and completely than the others, and a considerable number of bones 
and teeth of the elephant, rhinoceros, large ox, deer, horse, &c. have 
been discovered in it. The elevation of the undulated ground formed 
by diluvial accumulations in the middle of the vale of York is in- 
considerable, seldom exceeding 70 or 100 feet; but portions of simi- 
lar deposits rest on higher points toward the Hambletons, and lie on 
high valleys of the wolds (as at Middleton.) 
