in the Isle qfPurheck. 589 



Ft. in. Ft. 



Vegetable mould and brown Blue clay debris with stone here 



clay - - -4 and there sticking out - 10 



White clay - - - 3 Stone ... 3 



Blue clay - - 1 Blue clay - - 30 



Stone - • - - - 1 Stone - - - - - 5 



Blue clay - - -16 Blue clay - ... 6 



Stone ' - - 1 6 Stone - - - 5 



Blue clay - - - 1 6 Stone clay - - 40 



Stone 16 



114 

 A section with fewer changes occurs a little further south : — 



Ft. 



Debris of the clay » - 6 



5 Tiers of stone - - 5 



Loose blue clay - - 30 



Stone - - -2 





o» 



Ft 



Mould and clay - - - 6 



3 Tiers of stone - - 3 



Blue clay - -2 



Stone - - 01- ill - - 1 



Blue clay 9f f j himroi i " 3 



Stone m igfifojkf^q - - 1 



I will now remark on what are called " the highly inclined 

 red cliffs of Hastings sand in Swanwich Bay." 



To judge from the woodcut, it would be supposed that the 

 cliffs referred to were close to the town, and rose at a high 

 angle. Now, this is certainly not the case. I found this part 

 of the shore, for about half a mile, covered with grass, and no 

 sand visible ; and on the few spots left bare of grass I found 

 red, brown, and white clay, the latter resembling tobacco-pipe 

 clay. 



Haifa mile from Swanwich, and for the extent of more than 

 half a mile, as far north as the chalk, are alternate layers or 

 stripes of what, to the eye of a person in a boat in the bay, 

 will appear to be red sand and yellow sand. 



The dip is to the north. The angle at which they incline 

 is about 15°. It is a most extraordinary thing to find so very 

 frequently repeated those alternations of stripes of red sand 

 and stripes of yellow sand, and endless conjecture may be 

 made in accounting for the origin. 



If the apparently red stripes be examined, and the external 

 crust be struck off by the hammer, it will be immediately seen 

 that these are beds of brown sand, and it is only the part in 

 contact with the atmosphere which, by oxidation, has become 

 red. 



It is for theorists to identify these beds with what are called 

 Hastings sands. I have never heard of any fossils being found 

 in them ; and, mineralogically, the sands are not to be dis- 

 tinguished from some of the perpendicular strata directly 

 opposite, in Alum Bay ; and I will add what may excite reflec- 

 tions on the sands of this place, and of Alum Bay also, that 

 sands exactly similar have been found both over the chalk, 



