302 PETKIFACTIONS AND THEIR TEACHINGS. CHAP. III. 



is situated on the gentle slope of a valley of Greensand, 

 through which the river Medway winds its way to " The 

 Nore," and flows into the British Channel. The country 

 around is deeply covered by diluvial clay and loam, in which 

 teeth and bones of species of Elephant, Horse, Ox, and other 

 pachyderms, are occasionally found. These beds are of con- 

 siderable thickness, amounting in some localities to forty feet. 



The grey arenaceous limestone of the cretaceous formation, 

 provincially termed Kentish-Rag, occurs interstratified with 

 the more friable beds of greensand, and has long been ex- 

 tensively quarried in the immediate neighbourhood of Maid- 

 stone ; the most calcareous varieties being used for lime, and 

 the harder rock for buildings and roads. 



On the north-west of the town, the greensand strata dip 

 beneath the upper series of the Cretaceous formation, viz. the 

 Gait, Chalk-Marl, and Lower-Chalk, that appear in succession 

 on the surface, in passing to the neighbouring North Downs, 

 which are a continuation of the Surrey range of Upper or 

 flinty Chalk, and extend eastward, till they terminate in the 

 precipitous cliffs of Dover. 1 



The greensand strata in this locality abound in the marine 

 shells which characterise the lowest subdivision of the Chalk 

 formation, viz. the Atherfield or Neocomian series, to which 

 the elaborate researches of Dr. Fitton h^re imparted a high 

 degree of geological interest. 



Trigonise, pernae, gervillise, terebratulse, ammonites, nautili, 

 remains of crustaceans, scales and teeth of various kinds of 

 fishes, bones and teeth of marine saurians (Polyptychodon, 

 ante, p. 200), remains of turtles, &c., occur in these beds in 

 the vicinity of Maidstone. Waterworn blocks of fossil wood 

 perforated by boring- shells, fragments of stems, and branches 

 of monocotyledonous and coniferous vegetables, are also occa- 

 sionally found imbedded with the marine exuviae, having 

 evidently been transported by rivers or land-floods, and 

 drifted into the bed of the chalk-ocean. 



At Rock Hill, on the south-western side of the river, at 

 about half a mile from Maidstone, there is an extensive quarry 

 of Kentish- Rag in the possession of Mr. W. H. Bensted, which, 

 thanks to the sagacity and zeal of its intelligent proprietor, 



1 See " Wonders of Geology," p. 297. 



