ON A PIECE OF CHALK 

 [1868] 



IF a well were sunk at our feet in the midst of 

 the city of Norwich, the diggers would very soon 

 find themselves at work in that white substance 

 almost too soft to be called rock, with which we 

 are all familiar as " chalk." 



Not only here, but over the whole county of 

 Norfolk, the well-sinker might carry his shaft 

 down many hundred feet without coming to the 

 end of the chalk ; and, on the sea-coast, where 

 the waves have pared away the face of the land 

 which breasts them, the scarped faces of the high 

 cliffs are often wholly formed of the same material. 

 Northward, the chalk may be followed as far as 

 Yorkshire ; on the south coast it appears abruptly 

 in the picturesque western bays of Dorset, and 

 breaks into the Needles of the Isle of Wight ; 

 while on the shores of Kent it supplies that long 



VOL. VIII B 



