NOTES AND QUERIES. 297 



" I should mention that the pit is closed to the public, but that probably any 

 visitor would be admitted, as I was, by the coui-tesy of the manager, Mr. Allen, 

 of Woolwich." 



Tertiary Strata at Charlton Pit, near Woolwich. 



The Flints of High Port.— By Mark Norman, of Ventnor.— " High Port 

 is a local name, long ago given by fishermen and smugglers to a range of low cliffs, 

 beginning a little distance from the Fisherman's Cottage, at the eastern extremity 

 of the town of Ventnor, and ending in a headland called Whitestone Point, near 

 Horseshoe Bay, below Bonchurch. 



" The clifl's are composed of the debris of the different deposits constituting the 

 upper portion of the cretaceous series, or rather the harder portion of such, as 

 there is no evidence of the presence of the upper white chalk, except its flints 

 imbedded in compact masses in the stiff" clays formed by the decomposition of the 

 chalk, and which in some places reseml)les pipe-clay. This is extremely tenacious, 

 of a dullish-white colour, and holds the flints so well together that they form in 

 many spots the entire face of the cliff", from which they are with difficulty 

 extracted by the hand ; but the sea encroaching at the base of the cliffs undermines 

 and washes them out, and then they are drifted along the shore, and such as 

 contain fossil shells, &c., fall to the share of the collector, while those that contain 

 sponges are eagerly sought for by the visitor for the purpose of being converted 

 into brooches, bracelets, &c. The sponges and zoophytes will be enumerated in 

 the sequel. 



" The best flints for the collector to break in searching for fossils are round 

 flattened boulders, varymg in size from one to two or three feet in circumference, 

 of a light-reddish colour, and smooth on the outside ; they l^reak with a ring like 

 earthenware, are of a white or cream colour, and many of them contain cavities 

 filled with a whitish powder, much resembling pulverized chalk to the sight, but 

 to the touch it is giitty and does not readily leave traces on the fingers as chalk 

 would do. 



" These -flints contain splendid fossils, and it Avas from this class that the alveolus 



