396 PEOCEEDINGS OP THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIEXT. [April 5, 



Unfortunately this, which, as far as I know, has never been con- 

 tradicted, is in great part the reverse of the truth, as I found whilst 

 carrying on the Geological Survey in East Kent in 1863 ; for there 

 is no " Challc-without-ilints " in the island, the comparatively flint- 

 less Chalk of Margate is above the more flinty Chalk of Broadstairs, 

 and the beds rise southwards at first, toward the middle part of the 

 island, though they afterwards sink again further in the same direc- 

 tion : the island is in fact a very flat arch (or perhaps the half of a 

 dome, of which the eastern part has been worn away by the sea), as 

 shown by the section. The late Mr. P. J. Martin noted the fact of 

 the Isle of Thanet being an elevated mass of the Chalk*. 



Section across the Isle of Thanet from the Cliff on the western side of 

 Margate to that at Red Cliff's End Point, westward of Peg well. 



— Sea-levi 



Horizontal scale. 

 Vertical scale about six times as large. 



a. Thanet Beds. h. Margate Chalk. c. Broadstau-s Chalk. 



Margate Chalk. 



The higher division, or, as it may fitly be called. The Margate 

 ChalJc, contains but a very few nodular flints, so that the bedding 

 is not well shown, and sometimes thin layers of flint filling the 

 narrow vertical openings of the even joints. These joints, which are 

 very marked and constant, in a direction about N.W. and S.E., 

 are the cause of the peculiar form of the cliffs in many places near 

 Margate, especially to the west, where there are parallel-sided inlets 

 worn back from the shore, sometimes for some depth into the clifi", 

 and here and there detached masses. 



This division forms the whole of the clifl" from the north-western 

 corner of the island to White Ness on the north-east. Between the 

 latter place and Fore Ness, a distance of about three-quarters of a 

 mile, the face of the chfi" is more or less along the joint-lines, here> 

 not quite vertical. 



At White Kess there is a yellowish nodular bed at the bottom of 

 of the cliff, which must also be at or near the bottom of the Margate 

 Chalk, although, as might be expected, there is no marked divi- 

 sion between this and the chalk below. 



I had no means of measuring the thickness, but I should think 

 that it is not less than 80 feet. 



Broadstairs Chalk. 



This division is distinguished from that above by containing many 

 layers of tabular flint and of nodular flints. One of the former, 

 which, however, is not strictly tabular, but rather a continuous bed 



*-"■ ' A Geological Memou' on a Part of Western Sussex,' 1828, p. 96, 



