Having lived from infancy on the shores of the Channel, with the beautiful section of the Kentish coast constantly before my eyes, it is only natural that as a geologist I should take especial interest in the study of the Cretaceous Rocks, and being fully acquainted with their divisions, fossils, and details in my own district, I was desirous of instituting a comparison with those of the north of France, with which they are so intimately connected.

Narrow as are the straits which divide the two countries, considerable differences exist in the subdivisions of this formation as we proceed westward, and much is to be learnt from the study of the ancient condition of the various portions of the great oceanic basin of which both the strata of England and France alike are portions.

There was also another subject of much practical importance as well as scientific interest, which deserved to be studied on both coasts—the flint beaches. Constantly are they journeying from west to east; but where do they come from and whither do they go? From whence are they derived?

These were the objects for which, on the 3rd of September, 1854, I started for a month's ramble in the north of France. My health at the time was but very indifferent, and I was unequal to those exertions I should otherwise have made, and which were necessary to render the investigations and comparisons complete.