The Nome nugget., 1934-09-15
Prepared by National Geographic Society. Washington. D. -G.--WNU servies.----7

WaBhtngtons O. S'--WNO O0TNtSe
 K HELLOWED by time, Whitby, IV climbing the cliffs of the ~ = North sea coast to which 1t has clung for centuries, draws many visitors who are lured by the at mosphere of old England.
 Most of the old part of the town remains as 1t was hundreds of years ago, dominated by the parish church. St. Mary's-bullt in 11OO- and the famous ruins of Whitby ab- bey.
 Today Whitby Is a fishing port only, and It's real splendors belong to the past; to the days of the old Saxon monastery of St. Hilda and Caedmon: to the days of the Great Synod in 664. when Saxon kings and the leading ecclesiastical lights of the land met with pomp and cir constance to settle the vexed Ques- ton of the date of Easter; to the days of wooden ships and wooden ship-building, when Whitby was fifth port in England and her sturdy oak-built ships were famed across the seven seas; to the days when Whitby was one of the chief bases of the Greenland whaling industry, and Cook and Scoresby sailed from the port on their exciting enter prises; to the days when 1,500 men were regularly employed mining and carving jet Ga black semi-precious .mineraD and twice this number were engaged In the alum industry along the coast.
 There is no shipping now. At the dawn of the great Iron age some of the yards" turned to iron, and many fine screw steamers were built on the stocks which then lined the upper harbor. But the shallowness of that harbor and the distance from foundries and rolling mills were fatal handlcaps, and Whltby found annlhllating rivals in the ports of the Tees and Tyne.
 The alum industry died with the discovery of cheaper method of production.
 Ancient, Crooked Streets.
 The old towns streets are tortu ous and narrow, the names of the 1btnF ooau noUtor0otn opd EIovnp gate, suggest that they were built when there were no traffic problems. There is documentary evidence of their existence in the Fourteenth century. Flowergate climbs down the slope of the West Cliff. Baxter gate runs parallel to the docks. A steel bridge, originally a wooden drawbridge, conducts its bewildered traffic to the east side of the har- bor, and here is the equally ancient and even narrower Church street again running parallel to the har bor and leading to the foot of the famous 199 steps which the faith ful must climb to attend worship in the parish church, St. Mary's.
 Whitby is the shopping center for a wide rural area. It's shops are chiefly in the two main streets and its market backs off Church street. The market day Is Saturday.
 Early in the morning the farmers arrive In their neat little traps, with baskets of butter, eggs, chickens, curds (fllllng for the famous York shire cheesecakes), trussed geese, rabbits, and the like.
 Chiefly in Church street are the shops of the jet and fossil dealers. Jet is fossilized wood converted into carbon. It Is found in beds known as jet rock, which crop out in sev- eral places along the coast. It does not occur in seams, like coal, but in isolated pockets, which make its mining a speculative business. A man might dig for months, and not find handful. A good pocket, how ever. when the trade was In It's hey day, might have been worth any thing up to $25O. S9
 There Is no mining now. What craftsmen are left depend for their supplies on the longshoremen, who collect the bits washed out of the cliffs, or from submarine explo- sions.
 Its Jet Is Distinctive.
 While there is diverse opinion re- garding the merits of jet as a me dium for the true artist, 1t has in- spired some very fine and original carving. It is easy to work and takes on lovely polish, as different from the glaze of glass and imita- ton Jet as the polish of cheap fur niture is from the patina of . gen uine piece of Queen Anne. More A~A oa