10 NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 



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 

 considerable 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. 



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,* 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 colour 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, 



* There may probably be also in the chalk itself that is burnt for 

 lime a proportion of sand : for few chalks are so pure as to have none. 



