﻿Vol. 6 1.] 



PHOSPHATIC CHALK OF TAPLOW. 



491 



of higher beds of that formation below the Eocene strata at the 

 site of the Lodge section (see fig. 2). 



The few small exposures, and the 

 not very trustworthy surface-indica- 

 tions in the intervening ground, seem 

 to show the decrease in the proportion 

 of flints, and the gradual incoming 

 of phosphatic material from north 

 to south, which are to be expected in 

 a normal ascending sequence. 



In the pit near Taplow Station, 

 to the south-east, also, there are 

 signs of some disturbance, but the 

 dips are too variable to afford any 

 indication of its nature or general 

 tendency. In no other section seen 

 by us in this district does the Chalk 

 exhibit a definite inclination ; and 

 it is to be supposed that the Taplow 

 flexure is either a very local one of 

 the periclinal type, or that its influ- 

 ence is confined to the rocks of a 

 narrow belt of country. 



The structural features of the 

 Lodge and adjoining, more northern, 

 exposures indicate a synclinal axis, 

 with a direction roughly north-east 

 to south-west, lying to the south- 

 east (and probably within 500 yards) 

 of the first-mentioned exposure. 



As the age of this flexure cannot 

 be satisfactorily demonstrated from 

 the existing data, its bearing on 

 the problem of the Phosphate-basin 

 remains doubtful. So little is yet 

 known concerning the late Cre- 

 taceous and early Eocene folds in 

 the South of England, that an appeal 

 to them to explain the occurrence 

 of a small deposit belonging to a 

 class notoriously irregular both in 

 lij v\ its distribution and in its relations 



°<n # with other rocks, may not be viewed 



£' g with much favour. In the very in- 



frequeney of such deposits in the 

 Chalk of this country, some may see an argument for the existence 

 of a more intimate relationship between the Taplow Phosphates 

 and the trough in which they lie, than that usually subsisting 

 between a given group of sediments and the flexures determining- 

 its attitude as a rock-mass. 



