4.56 Geological Society. 



lore the fuel of this part of the country became scarce. The 

 middle beds of the cliff have much less iron, the greatest 

 part consisting of very white friable sandstone. In the upper 

 part of the series there are many large blocks of a grey cal- 

 ciferous sandstone, the surfaces of which exhibit a mamil- 

 lated structure : this rock may be considered as a variety 

 of the chaux carbonatee quartzifere of Haiiy, having much 

 analogy with the crystallized sandstone of Fontainebleau. The 

 mamillated appearance is very well seen at the White rock, 

 and has (though erroneously) been usually attributed to the 

 action of the sea upon the fallen blocks. 



The fossils in the cliffs of Hastings are not numerous ; the 

 shells being confined to two or three species of small bivalves, 

 and a univalve resembling that in the Petworth marble. Thin 

 layers of lignite are frequent, and fragments of a very sin- 

 gular silicified wood of the monocotyledon kind, the cavities 

 of which are filled with minute transparent crystals of quartz. 



Bones of large Saurian animals, and of birds, also occur, 

 though rarely ; together with scales of fish. 



The author observed that the grey calciferous rock has not 

 hitherto been noticed in any part of the formations between 

 the chalk and the Purbeck, except in this district : and from 

 its not being co-extensive with the rest of the ferruginous 

 sand series, and the want of continuity and correspondence 

 in many of the beds, he took occasion to remark, that it may 

 be frequently more correct to consider the subdivisions of 

 some formations rather as irregularly lenticular than as tabular 

 masses. 



June 18. — A paper was read entitled " Notes on Part of 

 the opposite Coasts of the English Channel, from Deal to 

 Brighton, and from Calais to Treport ; " by Wm. Henry 

 Fitton, M.U., M.G.S. 



This paper was accompanied by a connected series of views 

 or elevations of the coast, drawn by Mr. Webster, from the 

 place where the chalk rises near Calais, to where, after being 

 cut off near Blanc-Nez, the chalk again appears upon the 

 shore near Treport ; and, on the English side, from the rise 

 of the chalk near Deal, to where it sinks at Brighton. The 

 author expresses his acknowledgments to the Baron Cuvier, 

 through whom he obtained permission from the French au- 

 thorities to pass along the coast by sea, and experienced every 

 where the greatest attention from the officers of the French 

 Customs. The paper briefly describes the leading geological 

 features of the coast, reciting the partial descriptions already 

 published ; and referring for an account of the cliff's near 

 Hastings, to a memoir by Mr. Webster read at the last meet- 

 ing 



