Chert synonyms

Celts, of the usual late neolithic type, were generally of green jasper; hoe-blades (looking almost exactly like palaeolithic haches a main) of chert or coarse limestone; hammers of granite; mace-heads, of identical type with the early Egyptian, of diorite and limestone; nails of obsidian or smoky quartz, often beautifully made.

The Dolomite Series, known to the Dutch as " Olifants Klip," consists of a bluish-grey magnesian limestone with bands of chert.

The old land area still existed to the north, but doubtless much reduced in height; against this land, detrital deposits still continued to be formed, as in Scotland; while over central Ireland and central and northern England the clearer waters of the sea furnished a suitable home for countless corals, brachiopods and foraminifera and great beds of sea lilies; sponges flourished in many parts of the sea, and their remains contributed largely to the formation of the beds of chert.

The fossils from the Rhaetic beds belong to the Avicula contorta zone, those from the Lias to the Ammonites angulatus zone, while the blocks of limestone with chert contain Inoceramus, Cretaceous foraminifera and other organisms. The materials yielding these fossils are embedded in a course volcanic agglomerate which gives rise to crags and is pierced by acid and basic igneous ricks.

Chert is a coarser and less perfectly homogeneous substance of the same nature and composition as flint.