NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE 9 



duction. In the chalk-pit, at the north-west end of the Hanger, 

 large nautili are sometimes observed. 



In the very thickest strata of our freestone, and at consider- 

 able depths, well-diggers often find large scallops or pectines, 

 having both shells deeply striated, and ridged and furrowed 

 alternately. They are highly impregnated with, if not wholly 

 composed of, the stone of the quarry. 



NOTES 



1 This fossil is not what White supposes, but is a different species, be- 

 longing to the upper greensand, known as Ostrea carinata. 



2 The Ammonite is a very striking-looking fossil, and a common one. 

 When I was a small boy I used to delight in playing with a very large one 

 belonging to my father's collection, which would take to pieces, each sec- 

 tion of the shell being loose, showing the formation admirably. G. C. D. 



LETTER IV 



As in a former letter the freestone of this place has been 

 only mentioned incidentally, I shall here become more par- 

 ticular. 



This stone is in great request for hearth-stones, and the beds 

 of ovens : and in lining of lime-kilns it turns to good account; 

 for the workmen use sandy loam instead of mortar ; the sand 

 of which fluxes, 1 and runs by the intense heat, and so cases 

 over the whole face of the kiln with a strong vitrified coat- 

 like glass, that it is well preserved from injuries of weather, 

 and endures thirty or forty years. When chiselled smooth, it 

 makes elegant fronts for houses, equal in color and grain to 

 Bath stone ; and superior in one respect, that, when seasoned, 

 it does not scale. Decent chimney-pieces are worked from it 

 of much closer and finer grain than Portland ; and rooms are 

 floored with it ; but it proves rather too soft for this purpose. 

 It is a freestone cutting in all directions ; yet has something of 

 a grain parallel with the horizon, and therefore should not be 

 surbedded, but laid in the same position that it grows in the 

 quarry. 2 On the ground abroad this firestone will not succeed 



