164 PELTASTES 



(y, x) cease just before reaching the layer b, affect the i^ed beds to the right and left of 

 the points of application, and then start upwards through the white stratum in new posi- 

 tions and in greater number. The colouring matter in a is less equally distributed than 

 in B and c, and seems to have been accumulated as an envelope around irregular spheroidal 

 masses ; in b the tint is of a lighter, and in c of a darker shade than in the highest 

 division. The middle bed (b) is in substance the hardest and most homogeneous of the 

 three ; the last (c) is the least compact. Viewed in the cliff, a wears a mottled aspect, b 

 a nodular facies, and c a plain surface. Towards the base of the bottom bed (c) the hard 

 limestone character of the Red Chalk is lost, and the stratum degenerates into a some- 

 what sandy incoherent mass, hardly differing from the underlying, yellow division, except 

 in colour. On account of the less compact nature of the last of the three red beds, fossils 

 are more easily procured from it, have their surfaces in better condition, and are more 

 readily seen when of small size. Resting on the top of a and filling the undulations on 

 the under side of the lowest white bed {d) is a bright red argillaceous substance, very 

 friable, without sand, apparently destitute of organic remains, and never exceeding two 

 or three inches in thickness. 



" The fossils in the three red beds are for the most part similar, and suggest the infer- 

 ence that all three bands may be considered as forming a single division, and composing 

 one geological stratum. In the case where certain fossils have been seen only in the 

 lowest part, their absence elsewhere may be accounted for on the ground that the upper 

 bed (a) is less numerically abundant in organic remains than are those below, and that 

 the middle bed (b) is so exceedingly hard and compact as to diminish the chance of 

 discovering fossds. Avicida (jrypliaoides and Spongia jjcradoxica would seem, however, 

 to be special to the upper part of a, the highest of the three red beds. The dip of these 

 beds in the cliff is about 2° to the north ; sections inland, taken at right angles, give the 

 same number of degrees to the east. 



" Underlying the Red Chalk is a coarse sandy deposit (x, t of the Section) termed 

 in the district ' Carstone,' of a yellow tint, loose in composition, and full of small pebbles, 

 which are subangular and polished. The upper part (x), for about 8 feet, consists of 

 much sand, and is succeeded by a dark brown stratum (y), in which, at the beginning, 

 the pebbles are of larger size, and in which, afterwards, the sandy particles are so 

 loosely held together as to present a strong contrast to the massive nature of the white 

 and red beds above. Covered by the Carstone and adjoining it is a bed of clay marked 

 z in the section. 



" Throughout the space of more than thirty feet below the base of the Red Chalk no 

 fossils have been hitherto found at Hunstanton in the Carstone; but beyond that distance, 

 and just above the clay (z), there is a line of nodules (j/), in which are numerous speci- 

 mens oi Ammonites Deshayesi, and occasionally of ^. Cornuelianus ; close to these nodules 

 are others of ironstone, very similar to the masses found in the Lower Greensand of 

 Blackgang and Shanklin, in the Isle of Wight, containing casts of fossils. 



