58 Geological Society. 



the North of England differs from that of the South. The difference 

 consists in its greater hardness, its occasional redness, its well-de- 

 fined stratification, the absence of flint nodules in its upper portion, 

 and the continuity of layers of flint in its lower; in many of these 

 characters it resembles the chalk of Antrim. 



The occurrence of Hippurites in the chalk of Sussex appears to 

 require confirmation. 



A well recently sunk at Diss in Norfolk, after penetrating two 

 beds of clay and sand, the aggregate thickness of which amounted 

 to 100 feet, penetrated through the great body of the chalk, which 

 proved to be 500 feet in thickness; the tools passed afterwards 

 through five feet of sand, when water flowed in, and rose to within 

 47 feet of the surface. Mr. Taylor, our Treasurer, to whom we are 

 indebted for this information, states that the proprietor was en- 

 couraged to persevere in so expensive an undertaking by the ac- 

 count which he had seen of a similar well in Cambridgeshire, drawn 

 up by Mr. Lunn and published in our Transactions. The confidence 

 which he placed in that analogy (though the places are many miles 

 distant from one another,) has been fully justified by the event, and 

 the success of the experiment furnishes a striking example of the 

 value of records of this nature. 



Dr. Fitton's paper on the strata of the South-east of England, be- 

 tween the chalk and Oxford oolite, together with the memoirs of 

 Dr. Buckland and Mr. De la Beche on the coast of Dorsetshire, are 

 in great part printed. 



The Weald en and Purbeck beds are generally supposed to have 

 been deposited in an estuary, but what may have been the form, direc- 

 tion and extent of that estuary, it is not easy to conjecture. Similar 

 beds occur at Lady Down in Wiltshire, and at Swindon; and the 

 Vivipara, one of their characteristic fossils, appears towards the top 

 of Shotover. The discovery of this formation in the neighbourhood 

 of Beauvais excited much interest among the naturalists, assembled 

 there about three years ago, and several species of the Wealden fos- 

 sils seem to prove its existence at Loch Staffin in the Isle of Sky. 



And here, while considering the district of the Weald, allow me 

 to direct your attention for a moment to a subject temporarily, and 

 let us hope, only accidentally connected with it. I refer to the 

 repeated, though slight shocks of earthquakes, which have been ex- 

 perienced during the last eighteen months in the neighbourhood of 

 Chichester. When we recollect the prodigious area over which the 

 earthquake of Lisbon was felt, comprehending one fourth of the en- 

 tire northern hemisphere, we can hardly suppose it possible that the 

 cause of such phenomena can be seated so near the surface of the 

 earth as to come at all within the range of our observation. It is, 

 however, a singular coincidence, that in 1734, 1747, 1749, 1755, 

 and the three following years, earthquakes were felt in this same 

 part of England, and that on those occasions, as well as now, the di- 

 rection of the shocks is supposed to have nearly coincided with the 

 great line of fault. 



On the oolite district we have received no additional intelligence. 

 The boundaries of the several clay-beds in the midland and northern 



