DILUVIAL DEPOSITS. 
35 
tition, it may lie proper in this place to remark, 
that tlie veins of flint, so numerously distributed 
both horizontally and vertically throughout the 
chalk, are invariably confined to that formation^ 
and in no instance whatever appear either in the 
shingle bed, or in the calcareous bed above it* 
The shingle bed is jierfectly horizontal, and con- 
tains boulders of chalk, druid sandstone, and fer- 
ruginous breccia. In the FAephant bed, the pro- 
portion of chalk is so great, that the cliff at a 
distance assumes the apjiearance of a regular 
stratum ; but, upon closer examination, it is evi- 
dent tJiat the chalk at some remote period has 
been broken, and displaced ; and having fallen 
upon the shingle, previously to the formation of 
the Elephant bed, has subsequently been covered 
by that deposit. 
In the above sketch, the chalk, traversed by 
oblique veins of flint, is seen forming the base 
of the clift’. The shingle bed succeeds ; and im- 
mediately above it, is a heap of chalk in a state of 
ruin ; the latter is invested by the Elephant bed, 
of which the upper part of the cliff is composed. 
This appearance is curious, but the manner in 
* An opinion having been expressed (by a gentleman well known in 
the scientific world), that the flint veins traverse not only the shingle 
bed, but also the calcareous deposit, and have been formed “ subse- 
quently to the accumulation of an alluvial bed, b}' the attrition of 
agitated water,” and that the cliffs at Brighton are to be regarded as 
“ two very distinct chalk formations I carefully repeated my ex- 
amination of the strata in question, but could not discover any ap- 
pearance to support such a hypothesis. 
* Vide Royal jlnstitution Journal, No. VIII. p. 227. etseq. ; Phillips'! Outlines, Edit. 
1822, p. 106, 
