51 
Chalk Cliffs on the Coast of France, 
except that the upper part of the chalk with numerous flints is not 
visible in the former. The dip of the strata appears in both cases 
to be the same. 
On reviewing the many remarkable points of agreement between 
the cliffs on each side the Straits of Dover, it seems a supposition 
too reasonable to be ranked among mere hypotheses, that they 
were once united, and that they were separated at some very 
remote period by an irruption of the sea, which in all probability 
washed away the connecting mass ; for the unreasonableness of the 
popular notion that the two countries were simply rent asunder by 
some sudden convulsion, will become apparent, when it is further 
stated, that the chalk without flints on the west of Dover is not 
less than fifty feet in thickness, while that of Cape Blanc Nez is 
scarcely thirty feet thick, and that each of the overlying strata at 
the latter place, is thinner than those near Dover, in about the same 
proportion ; so that the height of the cliffs on the opposite shores 
is very different ; — that immediately on the west of Shakspeare’s 
being not less than 500 feet, while that of Cape Blanc Nez does 
not exceed 300 feet in height. Hence, supposing the two countries 
to have been once united, it may be assumed that the several chalk 
strata became gradually thinner in approaching that part which now 
constitutes cliffs on the coast of France: hence also, it may be 
concluded that the country in the neighbourhood of Calais, once 
constituted a part of that tract which is now termed the chalk basin 
of London, 
G 2 
