[Rockhounds] Not your father's Mineral Collecting

[DonH]

Lawrence Rush wrote:
> BTW, I think most everyone has seen the Dover, England flint, from the 
> famous chalk "White Cliffs", but if you haven't, I have posted a photo 
> of this one at the bottom of the page at the following URL:
> 


One last thought: doesn't this material come from the white cliffs of 
Dover?  I would imagine a lot of this was simply weathered out and could 
be picked up.  This would have made sense for ships leaving from the 
Dover area.  They would have needed *something* to use as ballast 
(though one wonders why they weren't carrying trade goods).

On a similar note, I've heard that divers off California have found 
fluorescent Franklin specimens on the bottom.  Apparently some ships 
used the mine tailings as ballast when traveling from NY/NJ to CA.  So 
it does happen.

Now that I'm thinking about it, the flint nodules could have been mine 
tailings from local operations.  There are plenty of uses for calcium 
carbonate besides chalk.  In any case, someone using ballast is going to 
want something cheap, preferably free, and taking away mine waste would 
have been a mutually beneficial activity for both parties.

Best,
Don