406 ON THE FORMATION OF THE CHALK STRATA, 



of the flint and the fossil, came in contact with each other. It 

 is equally difficult to embrace the idea of Hutton, that flint 

 was introduced among these strata from some other place, as 

 no forcible introduction of flint, in the state of fluidity, which 

 he supposes, would produce the long and extensive lines of 

 spherical and tuberose masses, drawn parallel to each other 

 with a precision almost mathematical, which the chalk strata 

 everywhere exhibit ; and the force by which that introduction 

 is supposed to have been accompanied, was calculated only to 

 annihilate the very delicate texture observable among the fos- 

 sils which are included in it. Operations much more quiescent 

 in their progress were necessary to the original arrangement 

 of these objects, — the parallelism of the flints, the delicacy of the 

 fossils, equally demand this. When these were got together, se- 

 cured, and hermetically sealed, in their position, they could no 

 longer be deranged, they could no longer be injured by for- 

 cible agitation, or concussions of any kind; and it is necessary 

 to presuppose some security of this sort, before we can specu- 

 late on the elevation of a single bed of chalk. 



I was led to these conclusions by an examination of some 

 fossils I lately obtained from the north of Ireland, which, when 

 combined with the consideration of the highly inclined chalk 

 strata on the coast of England, I conceived were capable of 

 throwing some light on the formation, not only of the chalk, 

 but also of the flints, which have hitherto presented so much 

 difficulty to the theorist. 



The fossils which principally occur in the Antrim lime- 

 stone, are the Belemnite and Echinite. Of the latter there are 

 different species, and they vary in bulk, from the size of a 

 wren's egg to that of a turkey's. When enveloped in chalk, 

 the echinus is entirely calcareous, having the shell converted 

 into cristallised carbonate, while the interior is filled with the 



usual 



