WILTSHIRE. — ON THE RED CHALK OP ENGLAND. 
265 
be adduced : Belemnites jaculum ; a small crustacean, Asiacus ornatus ; 
and a large bamite, called Hamites Beanii. 
To the south of the Red Chalk at Speeton, and adjoining it, occurs, 
as I lately mentioned, the White Chalk. The fossils in this part are 
not numerous ; an inoceramus, a terebratula, and rarely an ammo- 
nite, are found. But the White Chalk higher up, that is, farther 
south, below Flamborough Head, near Bridlington Quay, is very fossil- 
iferous, containing corals, echini, a bed of marsupites, as well as that 
very remarkable and extensive collection of marine forms, the silicified 
sponges, thousands of which can be seen at low water scattered up 
and down, and imbedded in the scars, or rocks. This chalk, however, 
has its drawbacks, for being very hard — indeed, so much so as to 
ring under the strokes of a hammer — specimens cannot be obtained 
without much trouble. I must make an exception with regard to the 
sponges. They are composed of silex ; hence, long soaking in very 
dilute hydrochloric acid will do more and better work after the 
fossils have been brought home, than fifty chisels. The calcareous 
matter is slowly dissolved away, and then forms come into view as 
delicate and lovely as any that can be noted in the modern sponge 
tribe. Most of the common kinds of the Flamborough sponges will be 
found figured and named in Professor Phillips' Geology of Yorkshire ; 
the rarer in the Magazine of Natural History for 1839. 
Let ns now return to the village of Speeton, and endeavour to 
follow the winding course of the Red Chalk to its visible termination, 
some hundred miles to the south-east, in the county of Norfolk. 
By a reference to the map (page 262), where the bed is laid down, 
it is seen that the Red Chalk adjoins the White Chalk during its 
entire length ; that it first takes a westerly direction for about twenty 
miles, and then suddenly turning at a sharp angle proceeds south-east 
for the remainder of its course. 
Some persons might suppose when they see the map, that if they 
were to travel to any of the towns or villages near the line, they 
would of necessity be able to see the Red Chalk in situ. No such 
thing ; the upper soil, or vegetation, or man's work, may quite con- 
ceal all traces. It is only at natural sections like the cliffs just 
spoken of, or by other means, such as wells, <Src., that we can acquire 
a true idea of the ground beneath us. Who, for example, that lives 
