21 
and our knowledge of the Eocene Paleontology in this country is still 
far from being complete, I am inclined to think that a series of de- 
posits of regular succession will one day be clearly pointed out. 
_Local descriptions will greatly tend to determine this point. 
Although Bracklesham Bay affords at some tides and seasons the 
most abundant harvest to the paleontologist, yet I have been greatly 
disappointed on more occasions than one in not being able to procure 
any specimens, owing either to the wind covering the beds with sand, 
sometimes to two or three feet in thickness, or to the tide not leaving 
the shore sufficiently exposed; so that a stranger might conclude that 
there were no fossils to be procured at Bracklesham. This circum- 
stance may be in a great measure obviated by consulting the Almanac. 
The best time for collecting is the first two days before and the last 
three days after the full and new moon: the highest tides are 
generally in March and October. When the beds are visited under 
favourable circumstances, there is an exposure at one view of an 
immense horizontal surface of fossils, differing in this respect from 
Sheppey, or the cliffs of Barton or Hordwell. Here the collector can 
at one moment be gratified by beholding thousands of the Venericardia 
planicosta, at another by seeing a great extent covered with the Twrri- 
tella imbricataria, giving him the most perfect idea of the formation of a 
bed of fossiliferous marble ; the rarer shells are dispersed, and require 
time and patience to procure them. 
The fossils are generally in a soft state, and much care must be ex- 
ercised in removing them. I have found a small flat trowel, which 
does not bend, the best instrument; though, for such large shells 
as the Cyprea Combii, or Cerithium cornucopia, &c., a spade is re- 
quisite ; a large portion of the surrounding matrix must be removed 
with the shell, and then it should not be disturbed, or any attempt 
made to clear the fossil, for two or three days. Packing the specimens 
