Intelligence and Miscellaneous Articles. 309 



the name of Hempstead series is proposed. Their characteristic 

 fossils are very distinct, and the highest bed of the series is 

 marine. These beds prove to be identical with the Limburg or 

 Tongrien beds of Belgium and with the Gres de Fontainebleau 

 series in France. We thus get a definite horizon for comparison 

 with the Continent, and are enabled to show, that instead of our 

 English series of Eocene tertiaries being incomplete in its upper 

 stages as compared with those of France and Belgium, it is really 

 the most complete section in Europe, probably in the world. We 

 are enabled by it to correct the nomenclature used on the Continent, 

 and to prove that the so-called Lower Miocene formations of France 

 and Germany are in true sequence with the Eocene strata, and are 

 linked with them both stratigraphically and by their organic contents. 

 We are also enabled to refer, with great probability, the so-called 

 Miocene tertiaries of the Mediterranean basin, of Spain and Por- 

 tugal, — those of the well-known Maltese type — to their true posi- 

 tion in the series, and to place them on a horizon with the Tongrien 

 division of the Eocenes. As these Maltese beds are unconformable, 

 and evidently long subsequent to the deposition of the great num- 

 mulitic formation, we are enabled to assign an approximate limit 

 to the estimate of the latest age of that important series. From 

 well-marked analogies we get at a probable date even for the Au- 

 stralian tertiaries. Thus the deciphering of the true structure of a 

 small portion of the British Islands can throw fresh light upon the 

 conformation of vast and far- apart regions. 



The peculiar undulatory contour of the surface of the fluvio-marine 

 portion of the Isle of Wight is due to the gentle rolling of these 

 beds in two directions, one parallel with the strata of the chalk ridge, 

 and the other at right angles to it. The valleys and hills running 

 northwards to the sea depend upon the synclinal and anticlinal 

 curves of the latter system of rolls, a fact hitherto unnoticed, and 

 the non-recognition of which has probably been one cause of the 

 erroneous interpretation of the structure of the Isle of Wight, 

 hitherto received. The truncations of these curves along the coast 

 of the Solent exhibit at intervals beautiful and much neglected 

 sections, well worthy of careful study. There is one of these 

 sections near Osborne. Her Majesty's residence stands upon a 

 geological formation hitherto unrecognized in Britain. Near West 

 Cowes there are several fine sections along the shore. The total 

 thickness of unclassified strata in the Isle of Wight is 400 feet, 

 if not more, and within this range are at least two distinct sets of 

 organic remains. The fluvio-marine beds in all, including the Headon 

 series, are very nearly 600 feet thick. 



XLVII. Intelligence and Miscellaneous Articles. 



ON AN IMPROVED REGULATOR FOR GALVANIC COIL APPARATUSES 

 AND MAGNETO-ELECTRIC MACHINES. BY G. GORE, ESQ. 



HAVING found in using galvanic coils with a " Lockey's water- 

 regulator " to regulate the strength of the intermittent current, 

 that by constant use the water in the regulator became dirty, and 

 the electrodes became covered with metallic oxide, and with calca- 



