258 
THE GEOLOGIST. 
^^OTES Al^D QUERIES. 
Sandpipes at Grays Thuerock. — A short time since I visited the chalk 
pits at " Grays Thurrock," and found the chalk of that district to contain a 
number of very interesting fossils, especially a large variety of sharks' teeth. 
The occm-rence of numerous sandpipes there is very remarkable. These vary 
in shape, but the majority are more or less conical. I noticed two, and 
part of a third, which, from their peculiar form, and other circumstances, 
causes a difficulty in my mind as to the mode of their formation. 
The chalk in the pit in which these are seen has been excavated to a depth of 
seventy feet, and on aU sides can be detected either perfect sandpipes, or the re- 
mains of some partially cleared away. Those to which I wish now particularlv to 
draw your attention are on the nortli side of the working ; they are almost close 
to each other, not being above twenty feet apart. I have traced their depths, 
one to thii-ty-five feet, another to forty-fiTC feet below the surface of the chalk, 
on which the bed of dark red clay containing green-coated flints reposes (Ts'o. 6 
in the sections, &c.). Their diameters are only about twenty-four inches, and 
the sides of each are almost parallel, the deviation throughout the whole length 
not exceeding two inches. It is remarkable that a layer of flints, traceable all 
round the pit, passes through these pipes (see diagram, fig. 1, b b). Por- 
Fig. \.—a, the patches of clay exposed by the fall of chalk ; h, the layer of flints passing 
through the pipes ; c, the point where a flint and its surrounding clay was procured. 
The dotted lines show the continuation of the pipes. 
