10 MR. 3 . T. HOTBLACK ON STONES ON MTJNDESLEY BEACH. 
hesitation, “ Dat’s not a ’nelian,” and she would have been right 
where some learned geologists have, I think, been wrong, for I have 
seen it seriously stated that pink flints are an inferior sort of or 
half- made carnelian or chalcedony ; even the great Ruskin, who was 
no mean geologist, describes in one of his delightfully-written books 
the pleasure he derived from the collection of pebbles of chalcedony 
on the beach of one of the South of England seaside towns, and is 
careful to mention that these pebbles of chalcedony show plainly 
their organic origin. Of course, those South of England pebbles 
are of organic origin, and for that very reason, as I contend, they 
are not chalcedony. In support of my contention I shall have to 
trouble you with quotations from one or two authorities. 
Emanuel says : “ The beach pebbles found on the South Coast 
of England always have the same mixture of colours, clouded 
brown with black and grey, in some specimens there are fine 
sections of choanites, proving them to have been formed in the 
Cretaceous Age, and to be totally different to real agate.” 
Bristow says : “ Agates are found in amygdaloid, a variety of 
trap rock. Scotch pebbles are true agates, but the stones from the 
South of England, sold as such, are merely flints from the chalk 
containing the silicified remains of sponges and other marine 
bodies.” 
Again he (Bristow) says : “Of chalcedony, the brown and yellow 
is called sard ; the red is carnelian ; the white, and yellowish white, 
is known as white carnelian,” and, he adds, “ chalcedony often 
exhibits parallel or concentric bands or laminae, when it is called 
agate. ” 
So far I agree with him, but, he continues, “ specimens are 
found in flints at Houghton Chalk Pits, near Arundel in Sussex, 
and beautiful specimens of sponges of the cretaceous period, 
converted into chalcedony, may be picked up on the shore at 
Worthing and other places on the South Coast of England.” 
Again he says : “ Chalk flints in the gravels in many parts of 
this county are frequently of a bright red and yellow colour, 
in fact, converted into agates and imperfect carnelians by long 
exposure to the sun’s heat and light.” 
It will be seen how completely this great authority contradicts 
himself. 
But what does another writer say of chalcedony 1 “ Various 
