70 
CHALK FORMATION. 
The general dip or inclination of the strata of 
the Sussex range is to the south-east ; in many 
instances, however, the influence of local causes 
has occasioned exceptions ; and the beds which 
flank the transverse valleys generally diverge from 
the openings, as if they had once formed an anti- 
clinal axis. 
The face of the chalk is marked with fissures or 
wells, &c. and scooped into deep hollows, furrows, 
and basins, which are more or less filled with 
tertiary sand and gravel. Masses of stalactitical 
and stalagmitical carbonate of lime, which must 
have originally been formed in caverns or grottoes 
of the chalk, also occur in the most elevated parts 
of the Downs. In numerous places on the sides 
and at the base of the Downs, quarries have been 
opened, and kilns erected, for converting the chalk 
into lime, of which immense quantities are annually 
consumed by the Sussex agriculturists. These 
partial sections in the interior, together with the 
line of coast from Brighton to Beachy Head, afford 
ample opportunities for the examination of the 
geological structure of this interesting chain. 
We now proceed to a more particular survey of 
the deposits included in the present section ; but, 
before entering on their investigation, it may be 
necessary to offer a few remarks, upon the sub- 
stance of wliich they are principally composed. 
Chalk * is a mineral too well known to require 
* Various conjectures have been offered respecting the probable 
origin of chalk, and the mode of its formation. Patrinf supposed that 
it was the production of three different causes: — 
I Diet. cl'Hisloirc Nalurclle, tom. vi. p. 
