278 DILUVIUM. 



The calcareous bed is composed of broken chalk, with angular frag- 

 ments of flint, imbedded in a calcareous mass of a yellowish colour, con- 

 stituting a very hard and coarse conglomerate. It is not stratified, but is 

 merely a confused heap of alluvial materials. It varies considerably in its 

 appearance and composition, in different parts of its course. In the in- 

 ferior portion of the mass, the chalk is reduced to the state of small 

 grains, which gradually become larger in proportion to their height in the 

 cliff; at length fragments of flint appear, and these increase in size and 

 number as they approach the upper part of the bed, of which they con- 

 stitute the most considerable portion. These flints are more or less 

 broken, and resemble those of oiu* ploughed lands that have been long 

 exposed to the action of the atmosphere. 



In some parts of the cliff irregular masses occur of an extraordinary 

 hardness ; these have been produced by an infiltration of crystallized car- 

 bonate of hme. Large blocks of this variety may be seen on the shore, 

 opposite to the New Stein e, where they have for years resisted the action 

 of the waves. 



This bed also contains water- worn blocks of druid sandstone, and fer- 

 ruginous breccia, corresponding in every respect with those previously 

 noticed in our description of the plastic clay formation. Small nodular 

 masses, composed of carbonate of iron in lenticidar crystals, interspersed 

 with bro^vn calcareous spar, have occasionally been found at the depth of 

 ten or twelve feet from the summit of the chff *. The only organic re- 

 mains discovered in this deposit are the bones and teeth of the horse, 

 and of the Asiatic elephant f; these occur but seldom, and are more or less 

 water- worn J. 



* I am indebted to Mr. Langridge, of Brighton, for specimens of this substance, dis- 

 covered in digging the foundation of a house on the east cliff. 



■f In the present month (April, 1822), a large molar tooth of the Asiatic elephant has 

 been discovered in Lower Rock gardens, in a well 50 feet deep ; by John Smith, Esq. Foreign 

 Consul. 



J I have specimens of the teeth by favour of Mr. James Berry, architect, found in a well 

 50 yards inland, at the depth of 46 feet, in the Coombe rock, and immediately above a bed of 

 shingle. 



