NEAR STIFFORD, ESSEX.
187
the "columbarium," in addition to those of the denehole and chalk-
well class. But the perhaps unavoidable want of detail in Mr. Meeson's
account, resulting from the smashed-up state of things discovered,
must always keep us ignorant on this point. And, unfortunately, a
discovery like Mr. Meeson's must always be a very exceptional
occurrence, because the subsidence which reveals the existence of
the pit must usually at the same time destroy or hide any evidence
of age it may contain.
A few words, in conclusion, must now be devoted to the geological
section shown at the subsidences. This section is manifestly one
of a somewhat peculiar character. For in this neighbourhood we
would naturally expect to find that 10 or 12 ft. of beds resting
directly on the Chalk consisted either of Thanet Sand, or of the
over-lying gravel seen at Hangman's Wood and other places. This
gravel, I need hardly say, is of very much later date than the Thanet
Sand, Woolwich Beds and London Clay, and overlies indifferently
any of those formations, occasionally resting on the Chalk itself.
And, on the other hand, wherever chalk exists, its surface is often
covered to a depth of a few feet by the well-known Clay-with-flints,
the insoluble residue resulting from the dissolution of the uppermost
beds of the Chalk by rain water; while here and there a consider-
able amount of sand, etc., has been let down into "pipes," which
have been hollowed out in the Chalk by the same agency. But it is
obvious that the section at the subsidences has no affinity to any of
these formations. However, as we leave Grays to walk in the direc-
tion of Stifford, we soon find ourselves in a road ranging north and
south, with a very large Chalk-pit on the right hand, and a still larger
one on the left. At the northern end of the right-hand, or easterly,
Chalk-pit, the surface of the ground would consist of bare Chalk, but
for the numerous pipes which have let down sand, gravel and clay
in a series of irregular festoons, extending downwards, for the most
part, to a depth of 2 or 3 ft. But on crossing the road and examin-
ing the northern half of the westerly pit, which is now less than half
a mile south of the subsidences, we notice on its western edge from
10 to more than 20 ft. of Thanet Sand, the thickness increasing
towards the north-western corner. But if we walk along the northern
edge of the pit, from the north-west eastward, we find that a mass of
reddish material, consisting of gravel, sand and clay, is lying in a
hollow eroded out of the Thanet Sand, the depth of this hollow
gradually increasing eastward till the Thanet Sand entirely disappears,
O 2