270 



That the shells in the Petworth marble are fresh- water 

 shells, and that this formation existed in Hampshire, as 

 well as in Sussex, appears to have been well known to 

 Woodward. In his catalogue of marine bodies, chiefly 

 shells, grouped together in lapideous masses, he mentions a 

 mass with cochlitcE in it, Petworth, Sussex ; and says, they 

 seem to have been moulded in the cochlea fasciata vivipara 

 Jiuviatilis, Listeri. 



This marble, as he observes, has been employed in many 

 of our cathedrals. The most ancient coffin in Salisbury, 

 that of, I believe, Kynrick the Saxon, which was removed 

 thither from Old Sarum, and has been generally supposed 

 to be of granite, is formed of this marble. This marble, we 

 know, exists also at Purbeck. 



Dr. Nugent has, I think, pointed out a very important 

 fact respecting these formations. In a siliceous specimen 

 with which I was favoured by Dr. Nugent, from Antigua, 

 several moulds may be seen bearing very strong marks of 



mined the Hampshire coast, found that Hordwell Cliff was not 

 formed of the London clay, as was generally supposed, and as he 

 had stated, from the accounts of others in the former paper pub- 

 lished in the Transactions of the Geological Society ; but that it 

 was composed of beds analogous to the lower fresh-water formation 

 of the Isle of Wight. Under these beds, which dip to the east, is 

 another of white sand ; and below this, in the next cliff to the west, 

 appears the bed similar to the London clay, and which contains the 

 well-known fossils published by Brander. This forms also the in- 

 ferior part of the coast still farther to the west, called the High Cliff, 

 which reaches nearly to Muddiford. 



This series of beds being similar to those on the opposite side of 

 the island at Headon Hill, Isle of Wight, is considered, by Mr. 

 Webster, as affording a strong confirmation of the opinion he had 

 formerly advanced respecting the extent of the Isle of Wight basin. 

 Mr. Webster also enumerates several fossil fresh- water shells 

 which he found at Hordwell Cliff, and, among other remains, are 

 fossil capsules, or seed-vessels, in considerable numbers. — Annals of 

 Philosophy, March, 1822. 



