PLASTIC CLAY FORMATION. 261 



terior of the country. Waterworn fragments of the breccia occasionally 

 occur in similar situations ; some of considerable magnitude may be ob- 

 served lying bare in the fields near Brighton church, Goldstone-bottom, 

 and F aimer-hill*. 



The selenites or crystallized gypsum (of No. 5) occurs in flattish 

 crystals, from six to eight inches long, which are generally in the form of 

 oblique parallelopipeds, or of rhomboidal prisms. The fibrous gypsum 

 is deposited in veins in the marl; the foliated variety occurs in large 

 tabular masses, composed of thin laminae, and is frequently coated with a 

 coaly substance. 



The surturbrand or coal (No. 6) appears to be analogous to that of the 

 Paris Basin, Corfe castle, and Alum bay : it also resembles the surturbrand 

 of Iceland ; some specimens are exactly similar to the Bovey coal. 



KoUed masses of this substance are frequently found on the shore at 

 Brighton, and were formerly so abundant as to be used for fuel by the 

 poorer inhabitants-]-. They are provincially called stromholo, a corruption 

 of strom-boUen, stream, or tide balk; the name given them by the Flemings, 

 who formerly settled in that town. 



The use of this substance was prohibited, on account of the very 

 offensive smell emitted during its combustion. It was employed by the 

 late Dr. Russell as a fumigation in certain glandular complaints, and it is 

 said with decided benefit. 



* The boulders of this breccia, like those of the siliceous sandstone, were used in distant 

 ages as sepulchral stones. Beneath one of those, near Brighton church, an urn of high an- 

 tiquity, containing human bones and ashes, was discovered by the late Rev. J. Douglass, 

 F.A.S. 



An immense block of this kind is situated in Hove parish, near the Shoreham road, and 

 is vulgarly called Goldstone, " from the British word col, or holy-stone ; it is evidently a tolmen 

 of the British period. This stone is in a line to the south of Goldstone-bottom, at the end of 

 which, close to the rise of the hill, is a dilapidated cirque, composed of large stones of the same 

 kind. On the farm of Thomas Read Kemp, Esq. opposite Wick, are two dilapidated Hst 

 vaens, formed of similar materials ; and on each side of the British trackway, leading to the 

 Devil's Dyke, blocks of the same substance may also be observed." Extract of a letter from the 

 late Rev. J. Douglass, to the Author, dated May, 1818. 



-f- Lee's History of Lewes and Brighthelmstone, Svo. 1795, p. 554. 



It is difficult to imagine from whence so large a quantity of this substance could have 

 been derived. The narrow layer at Castle Hill, is evidently too inconsiderable for the pur- 



