1824.] Geological Society. 67 



form a very instructive natural section of an elevated tract in 

 Sussex, surrounded by, and coining out from under, the clay 

 of the Wealds. 



These cliffs consist of alternating beds of sandstone, shale, 

 and clay, more or less charged with oxide of iron, and carbon- 

 ized vegetable matter. The iron is most abundant in the lower 

 part, where there are beds of two or three inches thick of rich 

 argillaceous iron ore that were profitably worked before 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 calci- 

 ferous sandstone, the surfaces of which exhibit a mamillated 

 structure : and 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 ap- 

 pearance 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 singular 

 silicified wood of the monocotyledon kind, the cavities of 

 which are filled with minute transparent crystals of quai'tz. 



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 fre- 

 quently 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. Henrv Fitton, MD. 

 MGS. 



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 authorities to 



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