Let us see then what “the Old Masters” had to say on the subject before us. In Mantell's Geology of the South-East of England, 1833, page 28, speaking of the beds of slightly rolled flints which occur on the Downs in Sussex just underneath the turf, he says, “The flints are more or less broken, have suffered but little from attrition, and are so abundant as to form a constant supply for repairing the roads in the south-eastern part of Sussex. This bed has clearly been formed by the destruction of the upper portion of the chalk; and it is equally evident that the cause which produced the disintegration of the superior strata was as transient as it was effective, since, although the chalk in which the flints were imbedded has been entirely destroyed, the latter have sustained but very little injury.”