26 
Mr. William Phillips on the 
greater part of their run ; and a similar bed is visible parallel to it, 
about three feet beneath the lower bed of flint. 
Several large masses that had fallen from this bed lay on the beach 
about a mile from Dover on the east ; they had lately fallen-, and as 
some of them had broken in the direction of the stratum, they af- 
forded a good opportunity for observing the nature of the bed in its 
less exposed state, and of discovering whether it afforded any inter- 
nal appearances tending to confirm the opinion I had formed of its 
nature, judging by the external roughnesses of this bed in the cliff. 
The newly broken parts shewed that the chalk of it is yellower in- 
ternally than the superincumbent chalk with numerous flints, which 
is very white ; they were also extremely rugged, and the more pro- 
minent parts were much harder than chalk commonly is. It was 
impossible to detach any of the numerous inequalities on these 
masses, without discovering some organic appearance. Some resem- 
bled vegetable stems coated with chalk of a different colour. In 
several instances, a cylindrical mass of whitish chalk, was surrounded 
by concentric coatings of the same substance of a darker colour, 
which sometimes amounted to ten in number. Ochreous traces of 
several varieties of sponge were likewise visible ; but by far the 
greater number of the projecting portions consisted, when detached, 
of shapeless masses of chalk which were considerably hard, and 
which in some respect or other, either by exhibiting a slightly porous 
texture, or a striated surface, always induced the belief of organic 
origin. These striated portions are very hard within ; the external 
striae are sometimes very regular. Among other organic remains 
afforded by these masses, I extricated the cast, in chalk, of a small 
nautilus, which hitherto I believe has not been discovered in the 
upper chalk. 
Such is the general hardness of this bed, that the workmen em ? 
