354 INLAND CHALK-CLIFFS IN NORMANDY. [Ch. XIX. 



Fig. 348. 



Section across Valley of Seine. 



mass of sand, gravel, and clay, from 30 to 100 feet thick. The two op- 

 posite slopes of the hills a and b, fig. 348, where the chalk appears at 

 the surface, are from 2 to 4 miles apart, and they are often perfectly 

 smooth and even, like the steepest of our downs in England ; but at 

 many points they are broken by one, two, or more ranges of vertical 

 and even overhanging cliffs of bare white chalk with flints. At some 

 points detached needles and pinnacles stand in the line of the cliffs, or 

 in front of them, as at c, fig. 348. On the right bank of the Seine, at 

 Andelys, one range, about 2 miles long, is seen varying from 50 to 100 

 feet in perpendicular height, and having its continuity broken by a num- 

 ber of dry valleys or coombs, in one of which occurs a detached rock or 

 needle, called the Tete d'Homme (see figs. 349, 350). The top of this 

 rock presents a precipitous face toward every point of the compass ; its 

 vertical height being more than 20 feet on the side of the downs, and 40 

 toward the Seine, the average diameter of the pillar being 36 feet. Its 

 composition is the same as that of the larger cliffs in its neighborhood, 

 namely, white chalk, having occasionally a crystalline texture like mar- 

 ble, with layers of flint in nodules and tabular masses. The flinty beds 



Fig. 349. 



View of the Tete d'Homme, Andelys, seen from above. 



often project in relief 4 or 5 feet beyond the white chalk, which is gen- 

 erally in a state of slow decomposition, either exfoliating or being cov- 

 ered with white powder, like the chalk cliffs on the English coast ; and, 

 as in them, this superficial powder contains in some places common salt. 

 Other cliffs are situated on the right bank of the Seine, opposite Tour- 

 nedos, between Andelys and Pont de l'Arche, where the precipices are 



