On the Red Chalk of England

Abstract

Persons in general take as the type or representative of chalk the material which mechanics employ for tracing out rough lines and figures. It is a substance of a bright white colour, somewhat yielding to the touch, and capable of being very easily abraded or rubbed down.But the geologist gives a much wider interpretation to the term, not limiting it by these few characteristics; and, accordingly, he includes under the same title many strata which would hardly be so grouped together by the uninitiated.For instance, there is at the base of the upper portion of the cretaceous system a certain hard, often pebbly, and highly coloured band, which, notwithstanding its great departure from the popular type, is nevertheless styled in geological language the “Red Chalk.” This stratum, the subject of the present paper, nowhere forms a mass of any great thickness or extent; perhaps if thirty feet be taken as its maximum of thickness, four feet as its minimum, and one hundred miles as its utmost extent in length, the truth will be arrived at. It may be said, also, to be peculiar to England, for the Scaglia, or Red Chalk of the Italians, has little in common with that of our country. The two differ widely in appearance, in situation, and in fossils.