268 



INLAND CHALK-CLIFFS IN NORMANDY. [Ch. XIX 



Section across Valley of Seine. 



tlie surface, are fi-om 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. 313. 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. 314, 315). The top of this 

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

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

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

 composition is the same as that of the larger chffs 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 

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



Fig. 314. 



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



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

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

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



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

 Tournedos, between Andelys and Pont de I'Arche, where the precipices 

 are from 50 to 80 feet high : several of their summits terminate in pin- 



