442 
what is now the eastern portion of Norfolk, Suffolk, and Essex. 
The succeeding formation of Lower Greensand (Neocomian), which 
rises in the picturesque hills at Snettisham, Dersingham, and 
Wolferton, tells also of the dominion of the sea, and is of much 
later date than the Kimeridge Clay. It comprises sandy and 
clayey sediments, enclosing here and there remains of Ammonites, 
Oysters, Trigonias, and other shell-fish. Occasionally hardened by 
ferruginous waters into what is called “ Carstone,” it gives a 
character to the houses and churches of the neighbourhood, and 
is even vulgarly spoken of as “ Gingerbread-stone.” 
Leaving out any account of the Gault and Eed Chalk, as they 
have no particular effect on the scenery, we now come to the great 
White Chalk formation, which really constitutes the foundation of 
the larger part of the county. So masked is it, however, by sands, 
gravels, and clays of later ages, that one familiar with the North 
and South Downs or the Wiltshire Plain, would hardly recognize 
in Norfolk what is generally understood to be Chalk scenery. I am, 
however, informed by Mr. F. J. Bennett, that there is a miniature 
Chalk combe at Kingstead, near Hunstanton ; while at Hillington 
and near Thetford, in West Norfolk, the scenery most nearly 
approaches a Down-like aspect. Indeed, it is on record that a 
“ white horse” had at one time been cut out of the short turf that 
concealed the Chalk in the neighbourhood of the old episcopal 
town of Thetford.* No vestige of the animal now remams, nor 
can I obtain any clue to its former whereabouts. Further south 
and south-west, the middle and lower beds of Chalk rise in a bold 
escarpment, especially in Bedfordshire ; but in Norfolk, although 
we read in geographies of the “East Anglian Heights,” the more 
conspicuous escarpment is formed by the Greensand, the Chalk 
having been planed down to a surface of gentle undulations. 
The Chalk itself is an organic deposit of the deep ocean, and we 
need not concern ourselves here any further about its method 
of formation, though its bands of flint — themselves mineral 
concretions or veins of impure silica, much of which originally 
entered into the framework of various organisms — have aided 
largely in the production of the later deposits in Norfolk. 
* G. B. Greenongh, in Conybeare and Phillips’ ‘ Outlines of the Geology of 
England and Wales ’ (p. 84) . 
