Proceedings. 101 



The Portland Eock abounds in fossils of various kinds. 

 Chesil Bank is of the Kimmeridge Clay, on which the island 

 rests ; it is very tenacious, and nearly black. It is an entire 

 barrier to the inland streams reaching the sea, and is of 

 so fine a nature that the waves of the sea have not washed it 

 away ; but the action of the sea has heaped on it a bank of 

 shingle, in some places forty feet high, and extending the 

 whole length of ten miles. On the east side of this bank is a 

 stream, called the Fleet, remarkable for the extensive Swan- 

 nery at its north-west extremity, several hundreds being kept 

 there. 



Mr. Horace W. Gilbert then read a paper, entitled ' Remarks 

 on the Marine Life of the Eeigate District,' as follows : — 



The subject I have chosen was suggested by a recent 

 donation — the boxes of fossils given us by Mr. AUingham, 

 the contents of which I was examining the other day ; and 

 on being asked to read a paper at this meeting I thought 

 that a few remarks on the character of our local fossil fauna 

 and flora might prove of some interest. I proposed, therefore, 

 to describe some of the more prominent forms of life which 

 existed at those remote periods when the stratified rocks of 

 our district were in process of formation. But on considera- 

 tion it struck me that I was restricting myself to a rather 

 narrow subject, and that the paper might be made more 

 interesting — and certainly more intelligible — if I took a 

 broader view of the matter and gave a general sketch of 

 those great principles of Geology which the local formations 

 serve to illustrate ; and the order in which I shall proceed 

 will be to first remark on the character of each succeeding 

 formation, and then say something about the fossils contained 

 in it; not confining myself strictly to the fossil beds of 

 Eeigate, but, taking them as types, mention the corresponding 

 beds of other British localities, as well as of other countries, 

 and their forms of contemporary life. 



First, then, let me remind you of a fact, which I have little 

 doubt that most here know very well, that our district is 

 occupied by at least two formations, the lower deposited by 

 fresh water, called the Wealden system, and an upper one, 



