THE GEOLOGIST. 



APRIL 1864. 



TWO OE THREE INCIDENTS IN A RAMBLE IN THE 

 NORTH OF PRANCE. 



By the Editor. 



Haying lived from infancy on the shores of the Channel, with the 

 beautiful section of the Kentish coast constantly before my eyes, it 

 is only natural that as a geologist I should take especial interest in 

 the study of the Cretaceous Rocks, and being fully acquainted with 

 their divisions, fossils, and details in my own district, I was desirous 

 of instituting a comparison with those of the north of France, with 

 which they are so intimately connected. 



Narrow as are the straits which divide the two countries, consi- 

 derable differences exist in the subdivisions of this formation as we 

 proceed westward, and much is to be learnt from the study of the 

 ancient condition of the various portions of the great oceanic basin 

 of which both the strata of England and France alike are portions. 



There was also another subject of much practical importance as 

 well as scientific interest, which deserved to be studied on both coasts 

 — the flint beaches. Constantly are they journeying from west to 

 east ; but where do they come from and whither do they go ? From 

 whence are they derived ? 



These were the objects for which, on the 3rd of September, 1854, 

 I started for a month's ramble in the north of France. My health 

 at the time was bat very indifferent, and I was unequal to those 

 exertions I should otherwise have made, and which were necessary to 



VOL. VII. R 



