Variegated Flint Pebbles

Some lime since Mousehold Heath, near Norwich, afforded much entertainment from the varieties of stones found near Kelt's Castle, such as Petrifactions of Echini, Geodes, and variously marked Flint Pebbles nearly resembling the Egyptian Pebbles, or Jasper, as it is called by Kirwan, &c., it bearing much the same affinity to that, as the British do to the foreign Jaspers, being more porous and ordinary as to hardness, &c. It, however, may often serve as amusement to a fertile mind in furnishing it with whimsical shapes; and it is astonishing to see what a difference there is in the fanciful ideas of the many curious forms observable in these stones, at different times. However, it may happen that the lines give so general an appearance of a face, even a likeness of a known character, that they have met with an almost universal approbation and agreement, and are valued accordingly. The present specimens are rather curious examples of the first mentioned, and rather undetermined in my mind, yet may be more clear to others. Thus the left hand upper figure is like a monster, something like a boar, which, when turned the other side upwards, resembles a Rabbi’s head. The right hand upper figure is something like a tiger. Those at the bottom nearly speak for themselves. The oval one is a boy; the other, like a distresed mariner reposing or leaning on a rock.