Oil the Phosphoric Strata of the Chalk Formation. 
81 
the same manner as is often seen in the case of an old bone which 
has been buried. This was noted in many places where there 
was an outcropping of the fossil beds hy the side of cuttings in 
lanes, &c. 
After leaving the parish of Frensham and proceeding westward through 
the parish of Kingsley, the fossiliferous beds are exposed in the fields 
lying below tlie talus of the escarpment of the fire-stone rock to the 
neighbourhood of Petersfield. In many of the fields the gault clay 
is denuded, and the fossils can be obtained in considerable quantities 
a foot or two below the surface. In fact, over an area of several acres 
the fossils are exposed on the surface, having been brought up by 
ploughing, trenching, and draining. A good many tons, now lying upon 
the ground, miglit be picked up at a trifling cost. All the specimens 
obtained in this quarter exhibit a very large amount of phosphoric acid. 
It is also worthy of notice tliat most of the land selected for the 
growth of hops in this district is situated upon the stratum of fossils. 
The farmers too in the neighbourhood uniformly agreed in remarking 
that these fields weie their most productive ones, both in hops and corn. 
At Folkstone, in Kent, the natural sections exposed on the 
face of the cliff present many facilities for examining this peculiar 
bed of fossils. They are here found in a solid conglomerate 
rock, from one to two feet thick, the whole of which is more or 
less phosphatic. This band commences on the east of the town, 
at the top of the cliff, where it lies close to the surface. As the 
strata here dip towards the east, the bed is easily recognised in 
its usual position just below the dark-blue gault clay, until it 
finally disappears on the sea-beach opposite the Martello tower 
No. 1. Large masses of the conglomerate have fallen from the 
cliff, and now lie upon the rocky shore below ; they are of all sizes 
— some of the blocks would probably weigh nearly half a ton. 
They are chiefly composed of various shells, ammonites, and 
fossil wood, mixed with sulphuret of iron and gypsum ; the 
latter substance constituting the principal part of the matrix. 
One of the amorphous nodules without organic remains (analo- 
gous to those described above as found at Wrecklesham), when 
broken up, give on analysis the following composition : — 
Silica and sand . . . . 
13 
•64 
Sulphate of lime 
50' 
•16 
Water in combination . 
14 
•97 
Water (accidental) 
7- 
47 
Phosphoric acid 
A- 
80 
Lime, additional 
•27 
Oxide of iron and alumina . 
'. 8- 
•82 
100 
•13* 
With traces of fluorine. 
* The chemical reader will understand that in this case the phosphoric 
VOL. IX. G 
