NOTES AND QUERIES. 297 
" I should mention that the pit is closed to the public, but that probably any 
visitor would be admitted, as I was, by the courtesy of the manager, Mr. Allen, 
of Woolwich." 
Tertiary Strata at Charlton Pit, near Woolwich. 
The FiiiNTS of High Port.— By Mark Norman, of Ventnor. — " High Port 
is a local name, long ago given by fishermen and smugglers to a range of low chfiFs, 
beginning a little distance from the Fisherman's Cottage, at the eastern extremity 
of "the town of Ventnor, and ending in a headland called Whitestone Point, near 
Horseshoe Bay, below Bonchurch. 
"The cliffs are composed of the debris of the difi'erent deposits constituting the 
upper portion of the cretaceous series, or rather the harder portion of such, as 
there is no evidence of the presence of the upper white chalk, except its flints 
imbedded in compact masses in the stiif clays formed by the decomposition of the 
chalk, and which in some places resembles pip-'-clay. This is extremely tenacious, 
of a dullish-white colour, and holds the flints so well together that they form in 
many spots the entire face of the clift', from which they are with difiiculty 
extracted by the hand ; but the sea encroaching at the base of the cliff's undermines 
and washes them out, and then they are drifted along the shore, and such as 
contain fossil shells, &c., fall to the share of the collector, while those that contain 
sponges are eagerly sought for by the visitor for the purpose of being converted 
into larooches, bracelets, &c. The sponges and zoophytes will be enumerated in 
the sequel. 
" The best flints for the collector to break in searching for fossils are round 
flattened boulders, varying in size from one to two or three feet in circumference, 
of a light-reddish colour, and smooth on the outside ; they break with a ring like 
earthenware, are of a white or cream colour, and many of them contain cavities 
filled with a whitish powder, much resembling pulverized chalk to the sight, but 
to the touch it is gritty and does not readily leave traces on the fingers as chalk 
would do. 
" These flints contain splendid fossils, and it was from this class that the alveolus 
