Page:Transactions of the Geological Society, 1st series, vol. 1.djvu/356

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also frequently turned up with the plough in that neighbourhood. They have likewise been found at Dartford, at Bexley, and at Bromley, to the southward.

Mr. Thorpe also relates that in the parish of Stone, there was a large mass of stone, of some hundreds weight, full of shells, which was brought from a field, and used as a bridge or stepway over a drain in the farm-yard. (Custumale Roffense, p. 255.)

In several spots in the neighbourhood of Bromley, stone is found near the surface, formed of oyster-shells, still adhering to the pebbles to which they were attached, and which are similar to those which have been just described, as occurring at Plumstead and at Charlton: the whole being formed by a calcareous cement into a coarse shelly limestone containing numerous pebbles. The only quarry of this stone which has been yet worked is in the grounds of Claude Scott, Esq. The opening hitherto made is but small; it is however sufficient to shew that the stratum here worked has suffered some degree of displacement, as it dips with an angle of about forty-five degrees.

At Feversham, over the chalk, Mr. Francis Crow has discovered a bed of dark brown sand, slightly agglutinated by a siliceous cement, and intermixed with a small portion of clay. In this stratum, which has been hitherto but little explored, he has found in a siliceous state, specimens of Strombus pes pelicani and a species of Cucullæa, nearly resembling those which are met within the Black-down whetstone pits.

Patches of plastic clay are frequently found over the chalk: some of these are yellow, and employed for the common sorts of pottery; but others are white, or greyish white, and are used for finer purposes. The coarser clay is very frequently met with, nor are the finer kinds of very rare occurrence. In the Isle of Wight two species of plastic white clay are worked for the purpose of making tobacco-pipes.