.4 



ON THE RED CHALK OF ENGLAND. 



If I might be permitted to give advice to any member of our 

 Association who should hereafter visit the place, it would be this — 

 that it would be well for him to carry away moderate sized boulders 

 entire, rather than to break them on the spot. The fossils will best 

 be developed at leisure. The material is so hard, and the fossils so 

 brittle (especially the belemnites and serpulse), that imperfect specimens 

 only will result from the quick and rough treatment of the hammer. 

 The "find" will not produce any very great variety, only numbers; 

 terebratulse, serpulae, and belemnites will be all that will be obtained. 



Having now procured specimens, we had better walk southward 

 along the shore ; after a short time will be seen a fine perpendicular 

 section of this particular stratum ; we shall notice it is bounded on 

 the one side by the White Chalk, to which it is parallel ; on the 

 other by the Speeton clay, which is not conformable to it, that is, not 

 parallel. 



The thickness of the bed of the Red Chalk is at this place, as I said 

 just now, about thirty feet. First of all, taking it in descending 

 order, that is to say, having reached its limit at the White Chalk, 

 and retracing our steps in the direction of Filey, we notice about 

 twelve feet of red matter containing serpulaa, and we note that the 

 upper portion of this division is much filled with greyish nodules, 

 showing that the change from the White Chalk to the Red is gradual. 

 Next comes a bed of about seven feet thick, of darkish White Chalk ; 

 and finally, another bed of about twelve feet thick, of bright Red 

 Chalk, containing belemnites and terebratulse. The whole is followed 

 by the Speeton clay, of which a short and accurate account will be 

 found in No. 13 of The Geologist magazine. The line of division 

 between these two being well marked by runs of water, which are 

 caused by the percolation through the chalk being stopped by the 

 impervious clay. 



The Speeton clay is singular in some of its characteristics. At its 

 upper portion, in contact with the Red Chalk, it contains fossils belong- 

 ing to the Neocomian or Greensand era, whilst at the lower part there 

 are the representatives of the Kimmeridge clay. And thus it would 

 appear to be one of those peculiar formations which have resulted 

 from a number of beds thinning out, and becoming absorbed into 

 each other. Three of the well-marked fossils of the Speeton clay may 



