James Parkinson

“ Indeed when it is considered, that in France much more frequent opportunities are afforded of examining the stratification immediately above the chalk than in England, it will not be regarded as improbable, that several of these beds or patches may exist here, the discovery of which would render the accordance of the two series of strata much more close. ”

“ Real alluvial fossils, washed out of lifted or original superior strata by strong currents, and which in other parts are very abundant, are rarely seen in the counties adjacent to the metropolis. This remark is rendered necessary, since those widely extended beds of sand and gravel, with sandy clay, sometimes intermixed and sometimes interposed, and which have been generally hitherto considered as alluvial beds, are here assumed to be the last or newest strata of this island, slowly deposited by a pre-existent ocean; with the strata, therefore, of this formation, these remarks commence. ”

“ The hard chalk lies immediately beneath the soft chalk. In this stratum there are no flint nodules. “ Its beds,” according to Mr. Farey, “ increase in hardness, until near the bottom where a whitish freestone is dug, at Totternboe in Bedfordshire, and at numerous other places; that brought from Ryegate and other quarries, of this stratum, south of London, is used as a fire-stone.” [11]
It has been generally supposed that these two strata of chalk are of one formation: but not only the absence of the flints, but the characters of their fossils prove them to be of distinct formations. ”

“ With respect to the spinous shells, however, they certainly occur often, although it is almost impossible to extricate them unbroken from their surrounding chalk; and the rarity of the specimens of echinites with their attached spines, depends in a great measure on the mode in which these specimens are obtained. The specimens seen in cabinets are seldom found by the naturalist himself, but are preserved by the work people who break the chalk, when any uncommon appearances catch their eye. ”

“ In examining stratum, the curious fact that certain organic remains are peculiar to particular depositions, is first observed. Very few indeed of the fossils shells of the gravel strata are to be found in the bed of blue clay. In the gravel strata, by far the greater number of the shells bear a close agreement with those which now exist in not very distant seas ”

“ In this stratum, which has been hitherto but little explored, he has found in a siliceous state, specimens of Strombus pes pelicani and a species of Cucullæa, nearly resembling those which are met within the Black-down whetstone pits.
Patches of plastic clay are frequently found over the chalk: some of these are yellow, and employed for the common sorts of pottery; but others are white, or greyish white, and are used for finer purposes. The coarser clay is very frequently met with, nor are the finer kinds of very rare occurrence. ”

“ The decomposition of the softer parts of the animals, which were thus entombed, may be considered as a very probable source of a part of those gaseous matters which formed these cavities: and the connection of the animal remains with these nodules of flint is easily explained by supposing the shells, crusts of the echini, &c. to have projected into these cavities, or to have been adherent to their sides, at the period at which this infiltration took place. ”

“ Whilst endeavouring thus to explain the formation of these flinty nodules, and the filling up of the cavities of the fossils with flint, a difficulty arises from observing these bodies, insulated as it were in their bed of chalk: it not being easy to conceive, how so copious an infiltration should have taken place into these cavities, whilst the surrounding chalk should only have received a slight intermixture of siliceous grains. ”

“ Belemnites. These, according to M. De France, are different from those which accompany the ammonites of the compact limestone. The belemnites of our chalk are smaller than those of the limestone, besides which they are different in form, being narrower and more elongated. But M. De France may also have confounded with them the spines of the echinus, which so closely resemble the belemnites if that gentleman should trot have met with perfect specimens, he might not be able to remark the difference between these two fossils. ”

“ These vegetable remains have also been found on the opposite Essex shore, but in very small numbers. They have also been met with in that part of the stratum which has been examined at Kew. At Highgate and at Shepey a resinous matter, highly inflammable, of a darkish brown colour, and yielding, on friction, a peculiar odour, has also been found. This substance has been conjectured to exist in an unaltered state, and this indeed seems to be the fact from its resinous fracture; but it must be observed, on the other hand, that pieces of it occur which are penetrated by iron pyrites. ”

“ The height of this cliff' is from forty to fifty feet, about twenty-two feet of the lower part of which is the upper part of the blue clay stratum; “ above which,” as Mr. Dale observes, to within two feet of the surface, are divers strata of sand and gravel mixed with fragments of shells, and small pebbles; and it is in some of these last mentioned strata that the fossil shells are imbedded. These fossils lie promiscuously together, bivalve and turbinate, neither do the strata in which they lie observe any order, being sometimes higher and sometimes lower in the cliff ”

“ Chemical analysis has been called in to the aid of the naturalist, in order to account for the perfect state of preservation observable in remains organized with the most exquisite delicacy, and which there is every reason for supposing to have been readily decomposable in their recent state. ”

“ It was not supposed, even after the publication of these accounts, that the fossils of Shepey and those of Hampshire were of the same stratum. Among the Hampshire fossils no mention is made of crabs, lobsters, tortoises, nautili, nor of the heads or bodies of fishes so abundant at Shepey; whilst the Murex pyrus, Murex longævus, Strombus amplus, &c. of the Hampshire cliff had never, perhaps, been enumerated among the Shepey fossils. ”

“ This stratum is also rendered exceedingly interesting by its surface appearing to have been the residence of land animals, not a single vestige of which seems to have been found in any of the numerous subjacent strata of the British series. Mr. Jacobs relates that the remains of an elephant were found at Shepey. The remains of the elephant, stag, and hippopotamus have also been dug tip at Kew. At Walton in Essex, not only the remains of the elephant, stag, and hippopotamus have been discovered, but also remains of the rhinoceros, and of the Irish fossil elk. ”

“ Their colour, which is brown, light or dark, and sometimes inclining to a greenish tint, is evidently derived from an impregnation with iron. From this impregnation they have also received a great increase of weight and solidity; from having been rolled they have acquired a considerable polish; and on being struck by any hard body they give a shrill ringing sound. These fragments, washed out of the stratum in which they had been imbedded, are found on the beach at Walton, but occur in much greater quantity at Harwich. ”

“ Cuvier and Brongniart, periodical, appears from the seams or strata of flinty nodules, and particularly from the widely extended flat or tabular flinty depositions interposed between the chalk.
But that the chalk was permeated by the silex at some distance of time after the deposition of the former, seems also to be proved by the state of the fossils of this stratum. There does not appear to be a single instance in which the animal remains are impregnated with silex. On the contrary, the substance of all these fossils has become calcareous spar, and their cavities have been filled with flint ”

“ Immediately beneath the clay there is found a line of about three or four inches of the preceding shells imbedded in a mass of calcareous matter, the result of their disintegration. Beneath this are numerous alternating layers of shells, marl, and pebbles, for about twelve or fifteen feet. The shells are those which have been already mentioned; but are very rarely to be met with whole, and when entire are so brittle as to be extricated with much difficulty. ”

“ Cuvier and Brongniart, some important variations will be perceived between the strata found above the chalk in this island and in France. In France, the strata above the chalk differ both in number and quality from those which have been hitherto observed in a similar situation in England. In France too, several strata of sand and sandstones exist above the strata of the gravel formation, which in this island appear to be highest. ”

“ Three Terebratulæ. T. sulcata and a terebratula agreeing with Anomia terebratula Linn. are frequently found in our chalk; and sometimes another species, hardly half an inch in length, with remarkably acute and well defined ribs.
A Spirorbis. Traces of these shells are frequently found on the surface of the echinitæ.
Ananchitæ, (Echinus ovatus.) The crustaceous covering of which, it is remarked by M. Cuvier and Brongniart, remains calcareous, and has assumed a sparry texture, whilst the middle alone is changed into silex. ”

“ That the separation and deposition of the matter forming these siliceous nodules have been the work of crystallization, is rendered evident by the cavities left either in these nodules, or in the fossils, being generally lined with quartz crystals. ”

“ The fossils of this stratum are for the most part peculiar to it; very few of them being found in any other. They also appear to agree very closely with those species found in the chalk of France, by Messrs. De France, Cuvier and Brongniart. The number of fossils noticed by these gentlemen amounts to fifty; but they have as yet only particularised a part of them. These are here compared with what appear to be the correspondent fossils in the English part of this stratum ”

“ Besides these remains of marine animals, the fossil hollow tubercles, having lost the spines, of the thornback are here found; also fragments of the fossil palate, (Scopula littoralis of Lhwydd) and fossil remains of sponge and alcyonia, particularly a very fair specimen of the reticulated alcyonium. Org. Rem. vol. II. pl. IX. fig. 9.
In this bed, among the gravel and the shells, are frequently found fragments of fossil bone, which possess some striking peculiarities. They are seldom more than half an inch in thickness, two inches in width, and twelve in length ”

“ Il doit en résulter pour les arts et pour la géologie dos consequences d'autant plus intéressantes, qu'elles sont plus sures.” “ Le moyen que nous avons employé pour reconnoitre au milieu d'un si grand nombre de lits calcaires, un lit déjà observé dans un canton très-éloigné, est pris de la nature des fossiles renfermés dans chaque couche, ces fossiles sont toujours généralement les mêmes dans les couches correspondantes, et présentent des differences d'espéces assez notables d'un systéme des couches à un autre système. ”

“ I. p. 111. ↑ The chalk in the neighbourhood of Paris contains according to M. Bouillon La Grange, Magnesia 0,11, and Silex 0,19. ↑ System of Mineralogy by Prof. Jameson, vol. I. p. 172. ↑ Report on Derbyshire, &c. p. 112. ↑ Organic Remains, Vol. III. Pl. IX. fig. 6. ↑ Organic Remains, Vol. III. Pl. X. fig. ”