Roches d'Orival, Elbœuf.
If we then descend the river from Vatteville to a place called Senneville, we meet with a singular needle about 50 feet high, perfectly isolated on the escarpment of chalk on the right bank of the Seine (see [fig. 248.]). Another conspicuous range of inland cliffs is situated about 12 miles below on the left bank of the Seine, beginning at Elbœuf, and comprehending the Roches d'Orival (see [fig. 249.]). Like those before described, it has an irregular surface, often overhanging, and with beds of flint projecting several feet. Like them, also, it exhibits a white powdery surface, and consists entirely of horizontal chalk with flints. It is 40 miles inland, its height, in some parts, exceeding 200 feet, and its base only a few feet above the level of the Seine. It is broken, in one place, by a pyramidal mass or needle, 200 feet high, called the Roche de Pignon, which stands out about 25 feet in front of the upper portion of the main cliffs, with which it is united by a narrow ridge about 40 feet lower than its summit (see [fig. 250.]). Like the detached rocks before mentioned at Senneville, Vatteville, and Andelys, it may be compared to those needles of chalk which occur on the coast of Normandy, as well as in the Isle of Wight and in Purbeck[241-A] (see [fig. 251.]).
Fig. 250.
View of the Roche de Pignon, seen from the south.
Fig. 251.
Needle and Arch of Etretat, in the chalk cliffs of Normandy. Height of Arch 100 feet. (Passy.)[241-B]