238 Dr. FiTTON on the Strata below the Chalk, 



A good workman can cut out of the blocks about seven dozen of the stones per day *, They 

 are sold by the makers chiefly to one merchant at Honiton, who supplies the retail dealers. The 

 prices (in 1S25) varied from 2s. per dozen, for the finest stones, 11 to 1 2 inches long, down to 

 Sd. a dozen for the coarsest, 10 inches in length. 



(121.) Between the sand and the red marl beneath it, I did not observe 

 any perceptible valley, nor any indications of an intermediate bed of clay. 



In a lane at Standhill, between Wellington and Bryants, about half a mile from the latter place, 

 the strata were thus ; belonging to what is, here, the upper part of the new red sandstone. 



Ft. In. 



1 . Dusky red clay, or marl, adhering to the tongue 2 



2. Light greenish clay, with glittering particles (mica) about 1 



3. A band of greenish sandy clay, in part concreted and sparry, irregular in thickness . . 9 



4. Greenish clay, like No. 2 about 2 



5. Reddish clay, like No. 1., in part concealed at the bottom 



These beds are scarcely distinguishable from those at the top of the Hastings strata, at the back 



of the Isle of Wight. 



At Kentisbere, about 1^ mile west of the escarpment of the hills which contain the stone pits, 

 the strata of red marl appeared to dip to the south-east. They consist of coarse gravel and con- 

 glomerate of a dull red hue, under firm, red, marly sand : and here there is a distinct alternation 

 of yellow sand with the red marl, the former appearing below the marl in thick stony beds at 

 least 50 feet thick. A rough section at this place is given in Plate X. a. No. 12. 



(122.) Fossils. — The great numbers and variety of the Blackdown fossils 

 may be ascribed in part to the extent of the quarries, which have been 

 dug for sithe-stones during a long series of years ; but the beds themselves 

 must be more than commonly fertile in these productions, since the entire 

 thickness of those from which almost all the specimens have been obtained, 

 does not exceed twenty feet. Their beautiful preservation arises, in some 

 measure, from the loose sandy character of the matrix in which they 

 are imbedded, and from which they are easily detached : but the compo- 

 sition of the fossils themselves has also contributed to this effect ; for, with 

 very few exceptions, the shells are converted into chalcedony, and the 



* Mr. Meade, of Chatley near Bath, has favoured me with the perusal of a letter from the 

 Rev. Mr. Steinhauer, dated in 1813, in which, after an account of the whetstone pits at Black- 

 down, it is stated that the preparation of the sithe-stones is so injurious to the health of the work- 

 men, that in the little village of Punchey Down, which is inhabited exclusively by the stone-cutters, 

 the writer saw but one elderly person, and was informed that few reached the age of forty. The 

 complexion and figure of the greater number he describes as striking and interesting in a high 

 degree ; but it was the hectic aspect, and itself a proof of disease. When I visited the place about 

 twelve years afterwards, I did not meet with anything that called my attention to the health 

 of the quarry-men : but the facts described by Mr. Steinhauer are analogous to those which prove 

 the frequency of consumption among the grinders of needles, and the workmen at some other 

 trades, where minute particles of solid matter are diffused in the air, and taken into the lungs. 



