WILTSHIRE. OX THE RED CHALK OF ENGLAND. 



269 



better almost than at Speeton, and different certainly in many- 

 respects. 



We will suppose that we have arrived at Hunstanton, and are 

 walkingr towards the shore in front of the Le Stranoe Arms. A 

 very few minutes will convey us to the wonderful cliff. I say won- 

 derful, not from its height or length ; for at its greatest height, under 

 the lighthouse, it is not more than sixty feet : and it extends little 

 more than a mile in length ; but wonderful from its curious colour 

 and general effect. 



Lign. 2. — Hunstanton Cliff (looking to the North). 



The woodcut, copied from a water-colour drawing, made last autumn 

 by a friend, will afford an idea of its appearance ; but in it the absence 

 of colour, of course, takes away from the beauty of the scene. 



The cliff itself may be divided into five portions : first, White Chalk, 

 forty feet thick ; secondly, bright Red Chalk, four feet ; thirdly, a 

 yellow sandy mass, ten feet ; fourthly, a dark brown pebbly stratum, 

 forty feet ; and, lastlj^ twenty feet of a bed ahuost blaclv. 



These divisions do not run one into the other, as is the case in most 

 geological strata, but keep quite distinct. Thus the Red Chalk is as 

 clearly separated from the White, as though the one had been covered 



