CHAPTER II. 
In the preceding chapter I have endeavoured to explain the general 
appearance of the Chalk formation as it occurs in England, more par- 
ticularly the southern counties ; but in order fully to understand its 
great extent, diversity of form, and mineral condition, it will be requi- 
site to notice for a few moments some of the various deposits in other 
parts of the world, which, from the character of their organic remains, 
have been assigned to this period. 
In France the Cretaceous formation is most extensively developed. 
The tertiary beds on which Paris is built are surrounded by a broad 
girdle of chalk, extending westward to the mouth of the Seine, and 
northward into Belgium ; in its substance it is harder and more com- 
pact than in England, and frequently used as a building-stone. On the 
north side of the Pyrenees, the Cretaceous period is represented by 
a crystalline marble composed almost entirely of Hippurites, Spheeru- 
lites and Nummulites*. Spheerulites, though very rare, are sometimes 
found in the English chalk; I know but of two or three localities in 
Kent and Sussex in which they have been discovered. Nummulites 
are most abundant in the Eocene deposits of Bracklesham Bay ; but I 
have never been able to detect them in the chalk or flint of our own 
country. 
* “Tt is evident from the great range of the Hippurite and Nummulite limestone, that the 
south of Europe was occupied at the Cretaceous period by an immense sea, which extended from 
the Atlantic Ocean into Asia, and comprehended the southernmost part of France, together with 
Spain, Sicily, part of Italy, and the Austrian Alps, Dalmatia, Albania, a portion of Syria, the 
isles of the Aigean, coasts of Thrace, and the Troad.”—Lyell’s Elements, vol. i. p. 412. 
