Ixiv. MARINE GEOLOGICAL EXCURSION. 



Mr. Pentin to be connected with the original Bindon Abbey, 

 although the remains of the original Abbey are, perhaps, to be 

 sought underneath the surface, rather than in this chapel, with 

 its buttressed walls, its narrow, pointed, deeply-splayed east 

 window and corresponding doorway, both apparently Early 

 English. 



The party next pressed on over the hill to the " Fossil Forest." 

 Here, Mr. HUDLESTON'S attention being called to the " Broken 

 Beds," and his opinion being asked as to the cause of their 

 present condition, he said that the Rev. Osmond Fisher had 

 paid attention to the matter, and his theory was that they were 

 limestones which were deposited upon the rotten trunks of trees 

 and masses of vegetable accumulations, and that when these 

 vegetable accumulations decayed, the limestone beds formed on 

 top of them collapsed, so as to fill up the cavity formed by their 

 decomposition. However, he (Mr. Hudleston) could not say 

 that he believed in this theory, for another explanation was, he 

 thought, very much more likely. If they looked over the edge 

 of the cliffs they would see a mass of the stiffest and strongest 

 rocks which one could possibly imagine, and these rocks had 

 withstood the assaults of the sea for ages. He was of opinion, 

 therefore, that these shaly limestones had simply been crushed 

 between the weight of the superincumbent strata and the stiff 

 unyielding rock below, especially as all these limestone beds 

 were gradually undergoing decomposition. Mr. WIEHE COLLINS 

 called Mr. Hudleston's attention to the stump of a tree, which 

 Mr. HUDLESTON at once described as a beautiful illustration of 

 the way in which tufaceous accumulations had gathered round the 

 original tree-stump, the accumulations being ten times the size 

 of the wood itself, which was here replaced by silica, as was the 

 case in many of the Formations. In India and Australia one 

 met with beautiful specimens of woody matter replaced by silica. 

 A curious stone which the PRESIDENT handed to Air. Hudleston 

 he at once pronounced to be a lump of limestone fragments 

 cemented by tufa. The ASSISTANT SECRETARY ventured to ask 

 Mr. Hudleston how long he supposed it might be since these 



