218 Beds of Peculiar Flints 



size to Cuvier and Valencienne's specimens, which did not 

 come under their observation in a recent state. 



Of four Mediterranean specimens, (preserved in spirits), 

 of C. rubescens, which I have examined, and which were ob- 

 tained at the Ionian islands, by Robert Templeton, Esq. of 

 the Royal Artillery, and presented, along with many other 

 fish from the same locality, to the Natural History Society of 

 Belfast, one is 6 inches, and the other three from 9 to 10 inch- 

 es in length. The smallest is very considerably compressed, 

 quite as much so as the largest, although an individual of a- 

 bout equal size, described by Mr. Couch, (Linn. Trans, vol. 

 xiv. p. 76), was nearly round; from which some authors have 

 inferred that this is the general form of the species in a young 

 state. In the two larger individuals, which are in better pre- 

 servation than the others, the series of bone-like processes 

 appear on the dorsal ridge, and also on the ventral, though 

 less conspicuously. In all, the tongue is smooth. In none 

 of them are there any teeth, either inside or outside the row 

 on the lower jaw, and in both jaws the teeth are much fewer 

 in number than in the large specimen which is the subject of 

 this communication. 



Belfast, February, 1838. 



Art. VIII. Remarks on certain Beds in the neighbourhood of Lon- 

 don, containing peculiar Flints. By James Mitchell, LL.D. 

 F.G.S. 



On Blackheath, and over a considerable district in the coun- 

 ty of Kent, and a small portion of Surrey, there are most ex- 

 tensive and deep beds of a peculiar kind of flint, which it is 

 now proposed to describe. The designation of Blackheath 

 flint is proposed for it as involving no theoretical opinion. 



Beginning at Croydon, on the east side of the town, Park 

 hill and the Addington hills are covered with millions of 

 these flints. The continuity is then interrupted by the vale 

 which extends from Lewisham to beyond Kenton, but on the 

 east side of this vale all Hayes Common is covered with flints 

 of a similar character as far south as Farnborough. 



There is an equal abundance in the country about Brom- 

 ley, and over the whole of Chiselhurst common and Black- 

 heath. The same maybe said of Bexley Heath and the hills 

 from Plumstead to Erith, with the country about Erith : the 

 hills near Farnborough, Meopham, Shorne and Gadshill. In 



