14 

 WEDNESDAY, MAY 15th. 



THE FLINTS OF THE CHALK 



BY 



Mr. E. allow ay PANKHUKST. 



PART I. 



There are few of the phenomena of geology which have 

 occasioned so much discussion, given rise to so many conflicting 

 theories ps those black nodules interspersed amidst the white 

 chalk with which we are so familiar. 



Two things could hardly be more dissimilar than this brittle, 

 hard, black, insoluble siliceous oxide, which we call flint, and this 

 soft, white, soluble carbonate of lime, popularly chalk. 



Let me at the outset remark that aggregations of siliceous 

 matter, in many respects resembling flint, are met with in almost 

 every geological formation, at any rate from the Devonian 

 upwards, and that they are associated with sedimentary strata, 

 of marine origin, which have remained practically unaltered, and 

 of which, it may be added, carbonate of lime forms one of the 

 constituents. 



When I speak of " The Flints of the Chalk " I do not wish 

 to imply that true flints are found in no other strata, neither do 

 I wish it to be understood — as it is very often supposed — that 

 this particular part of the chalk is the only part in which the 

 typical flint is found. Here in Brighton we are mostly concerned 

 with the basement beds of the Upper Chalk, which are here 

 particularly rich in flints. The Middle Chalk beneath us is 

 de V oid of flints, and the lowest beds, as far as we have ascertained, 

 also are without them, but they occur in the Middle Chalk in some 

 parts of England, and in the Lower Chalk in Devon, Dorset, and 

 Yorkshire. On the Continent the Upper Chalk is almost devoid 

 of flints, the great grey nodular masses of silica, which represent 

 our flints, are confined to the Lower Chalk. There must then 

 have been at the time when the chalk was formed as a whitish or 

 grey mud at the bottom of the sea, or, since its elevation, certain 

 conditions favourable to the accumulation of this flinty matter in 

 one case and not in the other. 



