72 Dr Mitchell on the Chalk and Flint of Yorkshire. 



chalk in the southern counties. The Yorkshire flint is found 

 only in large tabular masses. In the southern counties, flint is 

 found in round balls, varying in size from that of a musket bul- 

 let to that of a six-pounder ball. Sometimes flint is in the form 

 of a tube, but by far the greater part is in nodules or tubers of 

 every sort of form, but always bounded by curved lines, and 

 much resembling the forms which melted lead will assume when 

 poured into water. Horizontal lines of such flints are found in 

 most quarries and chff*s ; and in cliff's of the same height as that 

 of Flamborough Head, as many as from seventy to eighty may 

 be counted, but none such are seen at Flamborough Head. 

 We find in the southern counties tabular flint, being flint in one 

 continued mass, the extent of which is to be measured by the 

 acre or a square mile, but it is rare to see more than one or two 

 such lines along any cliff; But at Flamborough Head, there 

 were strata of tabular flint and of no other description, and only 

 towards the foot of the cliff", and five or six or seven strata, or 

 more, at short distances, varying from one foot to five feet from 

 each other. Some of the strata were about two inches in thick- 

 ness, but some were as much as a foot. In fact, the strata of 

 flint in the Flamborough Head chalk, bears a striking resem- 

 blance to the strata of chert, as seen in the oolite in the cliff's on 

 the west side of the Isle of Portland. From the masses of flint 

 which I observed amongst the heaps of chalk laid down for six 

 miles along the road between Mai ton and Scarborough, it was 

 evident that the flint there was of exactly the same description 

 as at Flamborough Head. As a qualification to the preceding 

 remarks, it ought to be stated, that some few small round flints, 

 the matter of which had probably aggregated about some animal 

 substance, were to be seen on the beach. 



As to the colour of the Yorkshire flint, instead of deep black, 

 which is usual in the south of England, in flints found in chalk, 

 it was of greyish or whitish colour, but not uniform ; and some 

 parts were much whiter than others. Though distinctly diff'er- 

 ent in colour from the bright whiteness of the chalk, it is not so 

 much so as to render the flint strata visible or conspicuous, un- 

 less at a short distance. 



When the hammer is applied to the Yorkshire flint, the dif- 

 ference between it and the flint in the south of England is found 



