BETs^STED — ON THE GEOLOGY OF MAIDSTONE. 
The chalk hills are covered, at various places, 
with a red, tenacious (Post-Tertiary or Diluvial) 
clay, in which great quantities of flint nodules are 
buried. 
At the " Upper Bell," on the Rochester road, the 
chalk hill is 620 feet above sea-level, and from this 
altitude the spectator's view ranges over a great ex- 
tent of beautiful country. In the left bank, a large 
tabular bed of flint, about two inches thick, crops ^ 
out. Layers of hard chalk also occur here, con- 
taining numerous sharp casts of fossils — Trochi, 
Dentalia, Hamites, Scaphites, small Ammonites, 
etc. This bed is also met with at Boxley and Dept- 
ford. It is known to but few collectors, and some 
perseverance in breaking up pieces of this hard 
chalk is necessary to obtain specimens of its fossils.* 
In a field at Boxley Hill, I found an Echinus 
in a lump of the chalk which had been strewed 
over the land, in the interior of which were minute 
shells, apparently of a species of Area (?), that -a 
had probably gained access to the empty dead 
shell, as the Echinidse do not swallow entire shells, 
but gnaw dead fishes and such-like objects with 
their teeth. The Spatangidse live by swallowing 
sand and mud, deriving their nutriment from the 
organic particles they contain. Near here the 
Lower Chalk makes its appearance, and the great 
Burham pits, from which Mr, Toulmin Smith ob- 
tained many of his beautiful specimens of Ventri- 
culites, are about a mile ofl", in a westerly direction. 
These pits are famous for the very numerous fos- 
sils of high interest which they have produced. At 
Hailing, too, on the opposite side of the Med way, 
considerable quantities of chalk are dug for burn- 
ing ; the lime made from the chalk of these places 
being considered of very superior quality. It is 
known commercial lyas " greystone lime." 
In 1839 I discovered the femur of a turtle in a 
pit at Hailing, and also an abdominal plate at Bur- 
ham. These were the first remains of turtles dis- 
covered in the Kentish chalk. But a few years 
later I had the good fortune to find a most perfect 
specimen. This unique fossil I presented to Dr. 
Mantell, and it is now in the British Museum. 
It was figured and described by him in the ' Phi- 
losophical Transactions,' pi. 2, for 184^1, and sub- 
* This seems to be the bed of " chalk-rock " referred to by 
Mr. Whitaker iu the Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc. vol. xvii. p, 170. 
— Ed. Geol. 
