THE LOWER SANDGATE ROAD. 8 



this Lower Koad must needs be a favourite resort, 

 whatever his tastes, there are treasures here worth 

 the seeking, and mysteries which a lifetime would 

 fail to unravel. 



To the Geologist it is interesting as the commence- 

 ment of that escarpment of Greensand which runs 

 round the great Weald district to meet the sea again 

 at Beachy Head. The strata appear to dip five or 

 six degrees to the east, but the true dip is probably 

 N.E. ; we may follow these lines past the Harbour 

 until they enter the bed of the sea. No profusion 

 of organic remains is to be detected in them ; many 

 of the blocks contain coarse grains of quartz and 

 glauconite, showing that the waters of the old sea 

 were far from tranquil, an opinion borne out by 

 the many evidences of false bedding and cross-strati- 

 fication presented in the face of the cliff, and wherever 

 a quarry is opened. The rocks belong to the sub- 

 division known as the Folkestone Beds ; a short 

 distance past the Bathing Establishment the Sandgate 

 Beds crop out a dark mixture of clay and sand, in 

 which we may occasionally find fossil wood much 

 bored and tunnelled by worms. 



A little more interest attaches to a limited deposit 

 of Pleistocene age crowning the cliff at the back of 

 the Pavilion Hotel, just below the Battery. In this, 

 some years ago, were found bones of the extinct 

 Mammoth, Khinoceros, Hippopotamus, Irish Elk, 

 Eeindeer, &c., bringing before the mind's eye another 

 picture of the past, older and stranger than any of 

 the historical pictures already noted. It is a fresh- 

 water deposit, as shown by some shells found in it 

 by Mr. McKenny Hughes, during a hurried visit. 



