TRANSACTIONS
OF THE
HULL
GEOLOG ICAL
SOCIETY
REPORTS OF FIELD
EXCURSIONS.
This excursion, the first one of the season, was favoured by an
exceptionally fine day, and was well attended. The President leading, the
party proceeded along the Humber bank from Barton to South Ferriby, where
the Forest or Peat bed is exposed at low tide-- This section probably
belongs to the submerged Forest Beds underlying the Warp and which are from
time to time exposed on both sides of the Humber. This bed contains the
trunks of trees and occasionally mammalian bones are found, several bones
and teeth being obtained on this excursion: Horns of the
Whit Monday, May 14th
1894.
A
section of the
BRIDLINGTON and
FILEY.--June 8th and 9th, 1894.
On the invitation of the Yorkshire Geological and Polytechnic Society, our
Society joined them on this Excursion, for the examination of the Coast
between Bridlington and Filey.
Leaving Bridlington on Friday morning, under the leadership of Rev. E. Maule
Cole, M.A., F.G.S., Prof. P. F. Kendall, F.G.S., and Mr. J. W. Stather,
F.G.S., the party walked along the beach, noticing, en passant, the
Lacustrine deposit in the cliffs immediately to the North of the sea wall,
and the point where the Chalk Cliff passes under the Boulder Clay at
Sewerby, the site of Mr. Lamplugh's excavations. The Chalk Cliffs with their
capping of Boulder Clay were then carefully examined. On the East side of
the South Landing the more adventurous members of the party descended the
cliffs by the aid of a rope and anchor to examine the shell bed originally
discovered by Mr. Lamplugh ; the shells were very fragmentary and decayed
and but few good specimens were obtained, amongst them Prof. Kendall
identified the following :--Venus
exoleta, Cardium edule, Astarte
borealis, Astarte comftressa (with both valves intact),
Dentalium entalis, Cyprina islandia, Peecten islandicus and Tellina
balthica.
At Flamborough, waggonettes were taken to the Lighthouses, the "blowholes"
through which the spray is violently dashed being visited. A little to the
North of the Lighthouses are interesting patches of Speeton Clay and Red
Chalk removed from Speeton and deposited on the Chalk Cliffs about 150
feet above sea level, by glacial action. These patches yielded a
large quantity of characteristic fossils. At
SKIPSEA and ULROME --
June 23rd, 1894.
The weather being exceptionally fine a large number were present, including
members of the Hull Scientific Club, Field Naturalists' Society and
Students' Association -- conveyances were requisitioned to drive the party
from Hornsea to Skipsea, on reaching this village the party alighted and
made their way to the summit of the central mound of the remarkable
earthworks which exist here, where Mr. J. R. Boyle, F.S.A., delivered an
address -- He said, we are now in the centre of the most important and best
preserved British fortress in the East Riding of Yorkshire. It has been
usual for local antiquaries to regard these extensive and impressive
defences as the work of Drogo de Brevere, to whom William the Conqueror
granted the lordship of almost the whole of Holderness. It is quite certain
that Drogo built a castle here, but it is equally certain that these works
form no part of that castle. They are indeed many centuries earlier than the
time of Drogo. This fortification must have been raised before the time of
the Roman invasion of
HESSLE
-- July 5th, 1894.
The recently opened gravel pits on the Southfield Estate were first
examined. Dr. Walton, F.G.S., pointed out the position of the buried cliff
and described the gravels banked up against it, and the various mammalian
bones found therein. The Boulder Clay covering the gravels was carefully
examined, after which the Boulder Clays and gravels at the Hessle Cliff
chalk quarries were investigated. These gravels and mammalian remains are
described in detail in Dr. Walton's paper on page 17 of these Transactions.
KNARESBORO'--July 14th,
1894.
WITH THE YORKSHIRE NATURALISTS'
Knaresboro' is very picturesquely situated on the River Nidd, and there are
many instructive sections along the river banks showing the junction of the
Carboniferous with the Permian Rocks. A visit was first paid to the cliff on
which the castle is built, which shows at its base the coarse red Plumpton
Grit, upon an irregular denuded surface of which rests the Lower Magnesian
Limestone--a soft yellow sandy rock--enclosing pebbles of the Grits at its
base. This section also shows a large trunk of
Sigillaria weathered out of the
Grit. Many fine sections showing this sarne unconformity were seen during
the walk from the castle to
WILLERBY -- July 28th, 1894.
Under the leadership of the President, the Railway cutting between Willerby
and Little Weighton was examined. The cutting rises to about 40 feet in
height and exposes the Middle Chalk, with a capping of Boulder Clay 10 feet
in thickness at one point. The first halt was made at the Whiting Works, the
Boulder Clay here yielding Black Flint, Red Chalk, Oolite, Mountain
Limestone, Quartzite, Granite, Porphyry and
Bel. Mucronata. The quarry at
this place is about 100 feet deep, and the chalk is divided into beds by the
flint bands common in the Middle Chalk. In the chalk side of the cutting to
the West of this quarry, a band of flint runs horizontally at about 12 feet
above the metals, immediately below which,
Micraster and
Ananchytes ovatus were unusually
plentiful and the zone containing them was traced for a considerable
distance along the cutting.
Rhynchonella, Inoceramus and
an urchin resembling Echinoconus
conicus were also found here. A piece of Rhomb porphyry and shells were
found in the footway, but no doubt these were deposited here with the gravel
topping to the permanent way and illustrates the necessity of seeing the
boulders in the clay itself. The continuity of the sides of the cutting is
broken by crossing valleys of erosion defined as such by well-marked bands
of flint, the latter occasionally shewing small faults in the chalk. The
cutting at Little Weighton was very unproductive of fossils, contrasting
with the Willerby end of the cutting in this respect.
SPURN and DIMLINGTON--August 4th.
This excursion was arranged in conjunction with the Hull Scientific Club.
The party proceeded to Withernsea by train and accomplished the remainder of
the journey by waggonettes. The geologists leaving the
main party, descended to
the sea shore at Out Newton and found both cliffs and beach in an unusually
favourable condition for observation of the varied glacial phenomena for
which this district is famous. It was low tide and a large area of the beach
opposite Dimlington High-land was clear of sand and shingle and the basement
or lowest clay laid bare. In the cliffs, which are here entirely composed of
Boulder Clay, the junction of the basement clay with the over-laying purple
clay, was distinctly traced, and thousands of boulders of far travelled
rocks, many of them of large size, were seen both in the cliff and scattered
along the beach below. In addition to a large collection of rock specimens
the collectors of the party obtained from the basement clay the following
shells :-- Nucula Cobboldiae,
Tellina balthica, Cardium edule, Mya
truncate, Cyprina islandica, Pholas crispate, Astarte borealis, Saxicava
rugosa, A. compressa, Dentalium entalis ,A. sulcata,
Turritella, A. crebricostata,
Balanus.
Here and there in the basement clay on the beach, occur large patches of a
sandy sage-green clay, free from boulders and pebbles. From these patches
most of the shells were obtained. With regard to the rapid denudation of the
coast, Dr. Hewitson, of Easington, informed the party that to his certain
knowledge, that opposite the village, a strip of land 27 feet wide had
disappeared in 15 months.
DREWTON DALE and
DISTRICT,
WITH THE Y. N.
UNION--August 6th, 1894.
The Yorkshire Naturalists' Union held its one hundred and eleventh meeting
at
The geology of the Cave district is chiefly interesting from its comprising
a wide range of formations in small compass. The Jurassic Strata upon which
Between North Cave and the village of Cliff the
Lower Lias forms a low escarpment and the beds are well exposed in several
marl pits on the road side -- the first and largest of which yielded :-
Am. Johnstoni,
Ostrea liassica,
Pecten sp.
Nautilus striatus,
Modiola minima, Spine of
Cidaris,
Lima gigantean,
Pleuromya crowcombeia, etc., etc.
Cardinia Listeri ,
Avicula sp.
The Middle Lias is exposed in the neighbourhood of Hotham and North Cave,
being cut into by the roads going up the bank E. of these places. The Lower
Oolite of this district is well exposed W. of South Cave Station and in
adjacent quarries -- for particulars of which see excursion May 14. Of the
Middle Oolites represented here the Kellaways Rock is the most important
member. It reaches a thickness of more than 40 feet and was seen in a fine
section in the cutting E. of South Cave Station. Fossils were abundant --
The following species were noted :-
Am. Nodiolaris, Rhynchonella
socialis, Am. Gowerianus,
Pecten fibrosus,
Am. Keenigi,
Trigonia,
Bel. Owenii, Gryphaea
bilobata, Myacites,
Pinna,
Avicula braamburiensis Etc., etc.
Copyright Hull Geological Society 2016