Below the corabrash, the oolitic series of Yorkshire is very much unlike that of the south of England. In that is little sandstone, in this little limestone; the clays of the south are shales In the north ; and with the %/sales and sandstones are fossil plants, coal-beds, and Ironstone layers, very much like those of the older coal-fields. To these strata it is not desirable to apply always the same names as those which belong to (perhaps) contemporaneous beds hi the south, but we shall indicate the probable analogies.
Upper Sandstone, Shalt, sod Coal (nearly the equivalent of the Hinton sands and Forest marble of Somersetshire), 200 feet thick.— This series of sandstones (conglomeritic, or fine-grained, or laminated), shales, coal, and iroostone courses, may be stndied about Scarborough and in the cliffs to the northward. The coal is thin, and of small value.
Gray Limestone (equivalent of part of tho oolite of Lincolnshire), 30 feet thick.—It occurs at the White Nab, south of Scarborough, at Cloughton, Staintondale, and other points north of Scarborough and west of Whitby, always in an impure, rarely at all oolitic, state. But as we turn south along the foot of the Hambleton Hills, it becomes oolitic; and as the upper and lower sandstones diminish, it thickens and acquires more of the usual oolitic aspect. It is in places very ferruginous. The organic remains are numerous. They agree partly with those of the cornbrash, and partly with those of a lower zone, to be mentioned below.
Lower Sandstone, Shale, and Coal (500 feet thick).—The coal in this greats mass of arenaceous and argillaceous deposits is thick enough to be worked on the moors west of 'Whitby and north of Helmsley, and on the sea-coast at Halburn Wyke. Over it is a bed of sandstone, in which stems of Equiseta stand erect, and below la • bed of shale. This series of rocks ascends to the highest parts of tho Cleveland Hills, 1300 to near 1500 feet above the sea.
Ferruginous Beds (inferior oolite and sand of Somersetsbire), 60 feet thick.—These appear in the Peak Hill at Robin Hood's Bay, at Kettle. nese north of Whitby, and in various places round the base of the Cleveland and Hambleton Hills, as Osmotherley and Craike Castle. In the Peak Hill the slightly calcareous and irony beds are very fos silliferous, and the species of fossils generally resemble those of Dundry Hill near Bristol. The transition from these beds to the has formation below is very easy and gradual, the base of the one and the top of the other being softened by intervening palo micaceous sands.
Upper Lies Shale (called also Alum Shale, from its being the princi pal seat of the manufacture near Whitby, Lofthouse, and Guisborough), 200 feet thick in the cliffs near Whitby, and in the Cleveland Hills it gradually loses this thickness in going to the south of England, till near Bath and at Lyme Regis it can hardly be said to exist at all. In these strata lie most of the Saurian remains and many of the fishes, and in general a large proportion of the ammonites, belemnites, and other shells for which the Whitby coast is famous. It yields conife rous wood, often changed to jet.
series of sandy, ferruginous, and slightly calcareous beds, which divides the has shales into two parts, and is very rich iu fossils, receives this name. At Robin Hood's Bay, Staithes, and the head of Bilsdale, it is very conspicuous. Thickness 150 feet. These are the strata which contain °philtres rather frequently about Staithes.
Lower Lias Shale (500 feet thick).—It forms the base of the lofty cliffs to the west of Staithes, and supports the high moorlands of the carbonaceous sandstones and shales, and continues to the south under the Welds. In its lower parts are bands of gryphites, especially where its course approaches the Humber. Hardly any true lies lime stone-rock occurs iu Yorkshire farther north than about Cave and Market Weighton. The ammonites and other fossils of this series much resemble those of the Lyme Regis and Somersetshire Has, and it contains coniferous wood, sometimes changed to jet.
New Red Formation.
Red Marls with marly clays, with local occurrences of gypsum (Pocklington, Holme), form a broad band on the eastern aide of the Vale of York, at the western foot of the oolitic and chalky hills, but, being much covered by gravel drifted agaiust these hills, are leas known as to thickness and properties than any other of the York shire strata. They may be several hundred feet thick. They contain no fossils.
Red is found on the western side of the Vale of York, In an irregularly undulating tract of dry land, especially about Ripon and Boroughbridge. It has mixed with it a considerable mass of white or yellow sandstones, dug near Boroughbridge. Its thickness is unknown. It contains no fossils.