22 
in fine sawdust or bran answers extremely well; by this method they 
may be conveyed to any distance: the more delicate shells also require 
to be cemented as they are uncovered, and a preparation of equal parts 
of diamond-cement and water may be used with advantage, as it does 
not discolour or alter their character. The shells are seldom found in 
a perfect state at Bracklesham ; they are usually flattened, and appear 
as if they had been pressed down. This circumstance may arise in 
some measure from the pressure of the sea-water and the action of the 
waves, for I do not consider the fossil beds to have been visible more 
than two or three hundred years, and their exposure is entirely owing 
to the encroachment of the sea on the shore ; for it has been ascer- 
tained, that in little more than a century, six or seven acres of the 
glebe land have been absorbed at Bracklesham. 
The cliffs, if I may so term them, extending from Selsey Bill to 
Chichester Harbour, seldom rise more than nine feet, and the average 
would not be more than six or seven; they are composed of the much 
more recent Post-Pliocene formation, contaiming broken chalk flints, 
yellowish clay and sand in no regular deposit, the highest pot bemg 
Selsey Bill. The wells at Selsey do not exceed twenty-five feet in 
depth, and show the remains of a former beach. 
The further we advance in geological knowledge, particularly in the 
examination of the Tertiary formations, the greater necessity there 
appears for giving local descriptions and accurately examining the pa- 
leontological characters of every district. In this manner we shall be 
able to compare one country with another, and attain some knowledge 
of the real state of the world during the Eocene deposits. The Ter- 
tiary formations have been much neglected in England. Besides, the 
fossils at this period are usually found in great abundance in certain 
localities, while large districts of the same geological epoch may be 
seen without containing any. Most of the shells at Bognor, a distance 
