4 2 4 KALM'S ENGLAND. 



between the horizontal fissures was nothing less than the 

 same throughout ; for when the one stratum, if I may so 

 call it, was thick, the next was often quite thin. 



In the old cellars the distance between the planes of 

 the bedding was mostly 6 inches, sometimes, however, 

 more ; often i inch, and sometimes only half an inch, or 

 a narrow strip, en smal rimsa. Nor was one and the 

 same stratum always of the same width between the 

 fissures ; for although it commonly maintains the same 

 width, it sometimes happens that when it has been for a 

 time of one and the same width, it then by degrees grows 

 narrower, and at last terminates in an unguium acutis- 

 simum. Neither did the fissures always behave the same 

 way : for now a fissure might run exactly horizontal, as 

 far as the face of the chalk-pit went ; now, just as it had 

 gone for a little horizontally, it stood obliquely, and 

 another horizontal fissure began in it, i, 2, 3, or more 

 inches, either above or below, and so on. 



When one gently drew out a piece of chalk, which lay 

 between two horizontal fissures both [T. II. p. 72] the 

 under and upper sides thereof were a planum, or plane 

 without lumps or projections, and commonly of a little 

 darker colour than the chalk within, a sign that air and 

 water had entered the fissure. The coal-smoke which 

 comes from the limekilns, which occur in nearly all these 

 pits, is however able to have caused the same dark colour. 

 After running for some time straight as a line horizon- 

 tally, it bent off and ran obliquely. 



Among the horizontal joints or bedding-planes, there 

 were commonly some master-joints, which mostly ran the 

 whole way across the face of the quarry, and were larger 

 than the others. The distance between them varied — 2, 

 3, or 4 feet, seldom less than 18 inches, but the space 

 between them was often divided by small horizontal 

 fissures. 



