PRESIDENT’S address. 
347 
Hunstanton the Chalk formation begins with the Red Chalk. 
Elsewhere that basement Chalk is represented in point of time by 
the clays of the Gault. We know this from the fossil evidence, 
that the occurrence in both of such zonal forms as Ammonite s 
interrupt ux, A. lautux, and A. rostratus , marks an approximate 
period of time, and that the Red Chalk as suggested by Rose, and 
confirmed by Messrs. Jukes-Browne and Hill,* was “formed 
outside the limits of the area reached by mud-bearing currents.” 
Hence it is that some forms, allied more closely to chalk l'ossils, 
appeared earlier on the scenes in the Hunstanton area than 
elsewhere, as the chalky conditions were suitable to their welfare. 
A fact of great interest in connection with the Chalk in this 
country was made known in 1891 by Mr. A. Strahan.t He then 
ascertained the existence of two phosphatic bands (four and eleven 
feet thick) in the Upper Chalk at Taplow, in Buckinghamshire. 
These bands consist of pale brown sandy-looking chalk ; and they 
are composed almost wholly of phosphatised Foraminifera, together 
with fish-remains, in a chalky matrix. The lower band contains 
about 18 per cent., and the higher band 35 per cent., of phosphate 
of lime : and they bear a close resemblance in aspect and com- 
position to a phosphatic chalk which is worked for economic 
purposes in the north of France. 
The fact of most interest to us, is that phosphatic beds occur 
both iu France and at Taplow in England, in the zone of Alarm piles : 
a zone developed at Wells and Fakenham, in Norfolk. Still higher 
beds of Chalk, higher than any known in England, have yielded at 
Ciply, in Belgium, phosphatic deposits of commercial value. The 
eyes of local geologists may well be directed to this feature in the 
Chalk, for it is by no means improbable that similar beds may be 
detected in Norfolk. What John Linnell remarked in reference to 
Art, is equally true of Science: “What you see depends upon 
what you take with you.” The old chalk-pit at Taplow has been 
open for many a year, and as Mr. Strahan remarks, it is hardly 
* Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc. vol. xliii. p. 593. 
t Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc. vol. xlvii. p. 356: and ‘Natural Science,’ June, 
1893, p. 284. 
