GEOLOGICAL OBSERVATIONS IN FRANC^. Ql^ 



no longer exists, and we find only a white quartzose sand, White quartz 

 forming downs of litile height followin;^- the direction of the ^^."^» 

 coast toward St. Quentin. The same sand is seen all along 

 the coast from St. Valery to Cayeux, and even to the envi- 

 rons of the town of Ault. This alluvion therefore, if it have 

 been produced by the Somme, occupies a space of at least 7 



or 8 lea^rues flS or 20 railesl. Is it not rather owinoj to the perhaps left by 



"_,'-. -* o the retreat of 



retreat ot the sea r tlie sea. 



Near the town of Ault the pebbles are so accumulated on y xtea./ive bed 

 the borders of the sea, that they extend above, a mile in- ^'^'i^-bblesm- 

 land. r found there a flint passing to the state of caUe- 

 dony. At this town the cliffs reappear, still exliibiting the 

 same structure. At the city of Eu there is an interruption 

 of the cliffs, whicji appear again at Treport with the same 

 character. 



From Crlel to Dieppe the soil is essentially sandy. This Sandy soil. 



town is in a bottom, through which the river Arques flows: 



and it is these valleys, watered by so many different rivers. Cliffs inter« 



the course of which in general approaches more or less aruptedbyri* 



" ' ^ vers, 



west-north-westerly direction, that the continuity of the 



cliffs is interrupted. From Fecamp to Havre, the country 



being less intersected by them, the cliffs are more conii- 



nuous. 



At cape de la Heve, about a mile and a quarter north- 

 noi-th-west of Havre, the cliff" is not so abrupt as at Aull 

 ^!id Treport ; in other respects its striictu*-e is nearly the 

 same. At the bottom, toward the village of St. Adre^se, a 

 bank of marie is found, of which bricks are made: and the Marie, 

 cha>k rock includes different kinds of petrifactions, as well petrifactions 

 as flints, and nodules of pyrites, which are decompos;ed by '"'^d pyntes in 

 oxidation when exposed to the air. The cliff is continued 

 up the course of the Seine : and at Orcher, a pleaisant vil- 

 lage 3 leagues [7|- miles] east of Havre, it is about 200 feet 

 high. Here it is more abrupt than at cape de la Heve, and Sandstone un- 

 about a tifteenth part at the bottom is composed of a sand7 d^' ^'• 

 stone with small siliceous pebbles. 



At Honfleur the cliff ceases to contain strata of flint, and prij^ts cea^e. 

 diminishes in heig!,t as it approaches the mouth of the 

 Toucques, 4 leagues [10 miles] farther. From Tronville 

 §ar mer to within 4 miles of the mouth of the Dives it al- 

 most 



