REMARKABLE STRATA OP FLINT. 187 



tremely broken and (battered and apparently the moft fo where 



they lay moft in ftrata. The ftrata had alfo a great inclination 



or dip to the nortii. 



Although it would be rafli to attempt to account for this ver^ Conjeaure as to 



fingular ftate of deftrudion of the flints in the Caritbrook pit, thaulie^ftrala^'afe 



yet it is impoffible not to offer fome conje6lures on the fubjed. the period when 



There can be very little doubt tliat the ftrata though now fo ^^^'^ ^^^eTn^ 



inclined was originally formed in a horizontal pofition. When dined to flideon 



the tremendous convulfion took place which funk them to the each other, and 

 , . » the flints were 



fituation m which they now appear (at which time the chan- crufliedby this 



nel which feparates the Ifle of Wight from the main land was enormous aftion. 



perhaps formed) the ftrata of chalk, in the a6t of fubfidence 



had a tendency to Aide on each other, and this would be exerted 



moft fenfibly where from the admixture of the flints the cohe- 



fion of the parts of the chalk was the weakeft. This motion 



or rather ftrain of fo enormous a weight might in an inftant 



fliiver the flints, though their refiftance ftopped the incipient 



motion, for the flints though cruflied to powder are not dif- 



placed, which muft have been the cafe had the beds flipped 



fenfibly. This conje6lure is perhaps ftrengthened by what I 



obferved in a few detached nodules of flint in the chalk ftrata 



which did not appear to have fuffered as thofe in the beds of 



flint have done. I may here add that it feemed as if in fome 



places the fine powder of the flints had run down, and inveft- 



ed the nearer parts of the fiflTure with a thin coating of the 



agglutinated duft; but this may poffibly have taken place fince 



the face of the filfure has been expofed to the weather. 



Perhaps it may not be totally foreign from the prefent fub- Appearances of 



jea to mention that in a very great chalk pit at the village of gJj^J^JfjPjjJjj^^" 



Prefton, a mile north of Brighthelmftone, in which the flints lie ftone. 



in a very regular and nearly horizontal ftrata, but which has 



alfo vaft perpendicular fiflfures in the chalk ; the fiflures are in 



many places filled to a confiderable extent with a very thin 



vein of pure flint exaflly as if the flint, not being quite hard 



when the fiflfures took place, had been fqueezed out of the 



beds and run into the fifllires as foft pitch would do. I do not 



mean at all to fay that this was the cafe, but merely todefcribe 



the appearances. In the chalk pit juft below the church at 



Brighthelmftone another fingular appearance may be feen. 



The upper part of the chalk is in feparate mafles, not properly 



rubble, but with all their tender angles ftiarp exadly as if juft 



broken 



