10 UPPER GREENSAND. 



the evidence furnished by its fossils, and from the fact of so many of its Ammonites of 

 the Oolitic type being found, not in situ, but in boulders, has led to the inference of the 

 existence, at some remote period, in Filey Bay, of great beds of Oxford Clay similar in 

 character to the Oxford Clay of the south of England. 



" The Ammonites can, however, with much more propriety, be referred to Portlandian 

 types, and the wasted beds which have furnished the boulders doubtless pertain to the 

 •same epoch. 



" Above the line of Saurian remains alluded to, all the fossils belong to the Cre- 

 taceous type ; and amongst the exact representations of a Neocomian fauna many others 

 are found which in general features closely resemble them. Amongst the former, Ammonites 

 Dcshayesii, Leym., and Vermicularia Sowerhii may be mentioned, while Crioceras JBeanii, 

 Phil., cannot easily be distinguished, if at all, from C. Cornuelianum, d'Orb. 



" If we seek for the equivalents of the Upper Greensand in the Speeton Clay, we must do 

 so rather in the lower beds of Red Chalk which overlie that deposit than in the clay itself; 

 and the frequent presence therein of Inoceramiis Coqiiandianus, d'Orb., favours this view. 



" The junction of the lowest beds of Speeton Clay with the Coralline Oolite cannot 

 be traced along the coast, but may be seen at some distance inland, near the village 

 of Grimstou, one of the stations on the line of railway between Malton and DritTiekl." 



The Gault is the equivalent of the Eta^e Albion of d'Orbigny, and tlie Gaulf of the 

 ■Germans. 



THE UPPER GREENSAND. 



This formation forms an important feature in the physical geology of the Isle of 

 "Wight ; in Compton and Sandown Bays it is seen in its relative position to the Lower 

 Greensand below and the Clixilk above, and in the Undercliff it forms a bold, mural, 

 light-coloured escarpment, with rugged lines of cherty beds, producing a fine effect above 

 the rich foliage which clothes the undercliff. According to H. W. Bristow,^ Esq., F.G.S., 

 tlie Upper Greensand under St. Catherine's Down is about 155 feet thick; the lower fifty- 

 five feet consist of "bluish, sandy, micaceous beds, throwing out water at their janctiou 

 with the Gault, and passing upwards into yellowish-gray sand, also micaceous, with 

 sandstone and some chert, forty feet thick. Sandstone and chert imbedded in sand 

 make up the greater part of the rest of the section, the middle portion of which is 

 mostly blue chert based upon seven feet of sandstone, inclosing a bed of freestone four 

 feet thick, whilst the uppermost fifteen or twenty feet consist of calcareous sandstone, 

 forming a vertical face at the summit of the cliff." 



In the island the remains of Echinidoe are not abundant in these beds ; the Upper Green- 

 sand, near Warminster and Devizes (Wilts) ; Blackdown (Devon) ; and near Charinouth 

 (Dorset), and Cambridge, are the best localities for the fossil Echinodermata of this formation. 

 1 " Jlemoirs of the Geological Survey," the ' Geology of the Isle of Wight,' p. 24. 



