ON THE RED CHALK OF ENGLAND. 



7 



are again parallel in direction to each other, and accordingly the Red 

 Chalk is found, as before, at the base of the Wolds. Professor Phillips, 

 in his work on the Geology of Yorkshire, figures some Red Chalk 

 fossils from Goodmanham, near Market Weighton, and alludes to 

 their also occurring at Brantingham, not far from the River Humber, 

 the boundary of the county. 



Thus, then, the Red Chalk has been traced through Yorkshire ; 

 speaking roughly one might say, that it for the most part takes an 

 undulating course at the base of the Wolds ; that it rises with a very 

 gentle inclination from the sea near the village of Speeton ; that it 

 proceeds nearly due west until it approaches the neighbourhood of 

 Malton, that it then suddenly changes its direction, and advances 

 south-east until it sinks below the marsh-land six or seven miles to 

 the west of Hull, having occupied a distance of about fifty miles. 



We now cross the river Humber, and find the Red Chalk again 

 near the banks at a place called Ferraby, to the west of Barton in 

 Lincolnshire. 



The Museum of the Geological Society of London possesses speci- 

 mens taken from that part, and in a note attached to them there is 

 this remark, that first came White Chalk, then Red Chalk, then a blue 

 clay ; thus it is evident there is the same state of things prevailing 

 as we had at Speeton ; and the same observation will apply to the 

 appearance of the specimens themselves. 



But as we travel along the western base of the Lincolnshire Wolds, 

 or Chalk Downs (for Londoners would so term them), although we 

 find the Red Chalk underneath the White, yet the blue clay beneath 

 the Red Chalk is wanting ; its place is supplied by a thick series of 

 brown coloured sands, with included beds of sandy limestone, full of 

 fossils like the Kentish Rag, only not possessing echini and belemnites. 

 These beds have been referred to the lower greensand. 



Only a few remarks can be offered in reference to Lincolnshire. My 

 intention was to have visited the base of the chalk-hills, and have 

 gathered together new facts ; I have not been able to do so ; neither 

 have I been successful in discovering any authors who have written 

 much about that county. There is a great geological darkness over 

 that land, and much remains to be done in working out its fossiliferous 

 deposits. I can, however, speak confidently regarding Louth. 



