30 
ON THE RED CHALK. BY THE REV. E. MAULE COLE, M.A., &c. 
The subject of this paper is the Red Chalk, a formation 
peculiar to the East Riding of Yorkshire, Lincolnshire, and 
a small portion of Norfolk. Years ago it attracted so little 
notice, that Professor Phillips, in his second edition of the 
" Geology of the Yorkshire Coast," 1835, disposed of it in 
three or four lines, and only mentioned its occurrence at 
Speeton. Since then the Rev. T. Wiltshire, F.G.S., has 
published a paper on the " Red Chalk ; " and within the last 
few months, the Rev. J. F. Blake, F.G.S., has published, in 
the Proceedings of the Geologists' Association, an exhaus- 
tive paper on the " Chalk of Yorkshire.'"' 
After this latter excellent treatise, there is really little to 
be added ; and were it not for the fact that my engagement 
was made prior to the appearance of Mr. Blake's paper, I 
should not have ventured to say anything on the subject. 
All that I can do now is to contribute mainly what little 
information I can from my own local knowledge ; and how- 
ever humble this may be, I venture to affirm that it is not 
altogether unimportant, because local observers have better 
facilities for studying their own immediate neighbourhoods 
than those whose time and occupation only allow them to 
pay frying visits. 
But first, it must strike every student of Geology what 
vast gaps there are in the cretaceous formations of Yorkshire, 
as compared with similar formations in the south of England. 
The lower cretaceous group, otherwise called Neocomian, 
consisting of Lower Greensand (800 ft. thick), Weald Clay 
(600 ft), and Hastings Sands (900 ft), amounting altogether 
to a depth of 2,300 ft., is wanting in Yorkshire, except so 
far as represented by the Speeton clay, which is supposed 
to be a marine equivalent of the freshwater deposits of the 
