22 
overlaid with sand and brick-earth ; a fact which may be accounted for 
by the Tertiary clays being so richly developed in the Hove level, 
while they were sparingly spread out over the surface of the easteru 
hills. Hence the chief constituents of ‘‘ The Brighton Cliff Forma- 
tion” are the ruins of the Cretaceous strata, while the brick-earth 
of Hove is that of the Tertiary. 
The Brighton Cliffs, as they were 50 years since, are now hidden 
behind the magnificent sea wall; but at Black Rock a fine section is 
presented. In descending the cliff, it will be noticed that the flints at 
the top are large and gradually decrease in size and number. The same 
with the chalk, it decreases from large rounded masses to small pieces ; 
the whole being of a yellowish buff appearance, with shades of a lighter 
or darker hue, according to the mixture of Tertiary and Wealden clays 
with the Cretaceous formation, while here and there, varying in size, 
lie blocks of granite, porphyry, quartz, slate, sandstone, ironstone, 
breccia, and lignite. A little further eastward, and, at the base of 
this heterogeneous mass, reposes an old sea beach upon an old sea- 
washed sand. That beach was once laved by the rough billows of an 
icy sea. The deposit everywhere, especially in the middle of the 
cliff, shows signs of stratification, and was not, as it had been described, 
a ‘‘confused mass.” It had every appearance of having been washed 
down into a shallow estuary, when it was sinking, and there deposited, 
layer by layer, till it finally reached the surface. The water then 
gradually retired, bearing with it much of the finer sediment, while 
the flints, by virtue of their own gravity, remained near the surface, 
increasing century after century by pluviatile action, till they finally 
attained their present thickness. The same simple causes effected the 
vast flint accumulations lying beneath the turf of our Downs. It was 
the gradual work of ages, from causes still in active operation, and not 
the result of sudden and violent cataclysms, to which the older 
geologists ascribed the wondrous changes that have taken place in the 
organic and inorganic worlds, from the beginning of the unceasing 
revolutions of life and matter. 
The elephant bed extended, more or less, along the line of cliffs 
from Rottingdean to Sompting. In digging a well in the Western-road 
the old sea-beach was passed through at the depth of 54 feet, overlaid 
by chalk-rubble and brick-earth. The same, through Hove and on to 
Copperas Gap, where, in the cutting for the road, the bed was we'l 
marked ; the sand being seen in situ lying under the chalk-rubble and 
