I 4 o RAMBLES AND REVERIES. 



dredged up globigerina ooze almost identical in 

 composition with the chalk. 



" The dust we tread upon was once alive ! " 



The Upper Greensand is in some parts a calcareous 

 sandstone, known locally as " Firestone " and 

 " Malm Rock," and is largely quarried for hearth- 

 stones, etc. This will also yield Foraminifera. 



The Lower Greensand and "Wealden Clay are 

 usually placed together in what is called the 

 Neocomian Series, a subdivision of the larger 

 Cretaceous group. The Folkestone beds consist 

 of clean, light-coloured sands, intersected with 

 ferruginous bands and ribs. They have yielded 

 Exogyra, Terebratula, and other marine shells. In 

 the Wealden Clay is often found the fresh-water 

 mollusc Paludina, while terrestrial plants as well 

 as marine shells also occur, showing that the strata 

 are the remains of an ancient delta. As the deposits 

 have suffered from denudation, the delta must have 

 originally been much larger than the Weald now 

 is, probably covering an area of at least twenty-five 

 thousand square miles, and including the outlets 

 of a river which came down from the north-west, 

 draining a vast territory, of which the British Isles 

 are only a surviving fragment. 



These are a few of the points of interest with 

 which this district teems, but far more space than 

 we have at command would be needed to do justice 

 to its varied charms. To find clustered together 

 within the compass of half a dozen miles so many 

 formations is quite exceptional, while the facilities 



