At Brickhill, near Harrington, the seam also has been met with; a specimen of it can be seen in the Museum of the Geological Society of London. This last and those from Louth differ little in appearance or character from what may be obtained at the Speeton beds.
I have no more to say about Lincolnshire, except that, according to the authority of geological maps, the Red Chalk of that county sinks and disappears below the marsh-lands, a few miles before reaching the sea.
And now it is time to cross the Wash, that great sea-bay, and land at Hunstanton, a little village on the north-western coast of Norfolk. As I am addressing a company of working geologists, I ought perhaps to say how in practice the locality can be arrived at, for it is not quite so easy to reach a place in reality as it is to see it on a map.
To go to Hunstanton, in the most ready way, a person must first reach Lynn; whence an omnibus, starting in the afternoon, at three or four o'clock, from the Lynn station, will convey passengers to the village.
At Hunstanton there are two hotels, and several lodging-houses. I should recommend the Le Strange Arms, as being an old-fashioned comfortable inn, and nearer than the other to the section we are in quest of. Perhaps it may be thought, Why dwell so much upon Hunstanton—its hotel—and its omnibus? I do so because at that village there is a most excellent natural section of the Red Chalk, better almost than at Speeton, and different certainly in many respects.
We will suppose that we have arrived at Hunstanton, and are walking towards the shore in front of the Le Strange Arms. A very few minutes will convey us to the wonderful cliff. I say wonderful, not from its height or length; for at its greatest height, under the lighthouse, it is not more than sixty feet; and it extends little more than a mile in length; but wonderful from its curious colour and general effect.
Lign. 2.—Hunstanton Cliff (looking to the North)
The woodcut, copied from a water-colour drawing, made last autumn by a friend, will afford an idea of its appearance; but in it the absence of colour, of course, takes away from the beauty of the scene.
The cliff itself may be divided into five portions: first, White Chalk, forty feet thick; secondly, bright Red Chalk, four feet; thirdly, a yellow sandy mass, ten feet; fourthly, a dark brown pebbly stratum, forty feet; and, lastly, twenty feet of a bed almost black.