Notes on the Drifts of the Humber Gap

Abstract

Plate XXXVII. The glacial and post-glacial deposits of South-east Yorkshire and North Lincolnshire are divided naturally into separate areas by the range of the Chalk Wolds, connected only by the narrow strip of drift which passes through the Humber valley. Good sections in this strip occur on both sides of the river, at North Ferriby and South Ferriby. In these sections the different beds described in the context are revealed, but are best seen in the winter after stormy weather. The Ferriby sections have been noticed by several observers, and references to them will be found in the works of S. V. Wood,* Jukes-Browne,† and the Memoirs of the Geological Survey.‡ The South Ferriby section is fairly well described by Messrs. A. J. Jukes-Browne and C. Fox-Strangways in the North Lincolnshire Memoir above referred to, but of the cliff at North Ferriby no adequate account has yet been published. Inasmuch as these sections occur directly in the constricted portion of the Humber Gap, in drifts linking the glacial deposits east of the Wolds, with those of the less known region to the west, and are the only extensive sections visible for many miles, a fuller description of them may prove useful to glacialists studying the district. Physical Features of the District. The featureless flats of glacial and recent deposits which border the Humber east of the Wolds seldom rise much above the level of spring tides, and one consequently looks in vain for cliffs or sections. From Paull westwards, on ...