The Neic Forest : its History and its S< 



runs a remarkable band of fine sand, the " Middle Marine Bed,'-' 

 discovered some twenty-five years ago, by Mr. Edwards, and 

 subsequently successfully worked by Mr. Higgins. It is seldom, 

 however, exposed for more than a few yards; but that is sufiicient 

 to show, that after the elevation of the beds beneath they once 

 more subsided, and the sea came over them again, and after that 

 they were once again elevated. 



Just below Hordle House rises the " Crocodile Bed," run- 

 ning out of the cliff about three hundred yards from Beckton 

 Bunny. The lowest part of it teems with fish-scales, teeth, 

 crocodile plates, ophidian vertebrae, seed vessels, and other 

 vegetable matter, very often mixed in a coprolitic bed, just 

 beneath a band of tough clay, the specimens being more frequent 

 to the east than the west. The accompanying section (I.) will, 

 perhaps, not only serve to show the situation of the bed, but 

 also those above and below. My measurements will be found 

 to differ slightly from Sir Charles Lyell's* and Dr. Wright's :f 

 but this is owing to their having been taken in different places. 



Immediately under the "Leaf Bed," which, as seen in the 

 opposite section, rises from the shore to the west of Hordle 

 House, comes the lowest bed of the Lower Freshwater Serit->. 

 formed of blue sandy clay sixteen feet in thickness, from whence 

 Mr. Falconer obtained so many of his mammalian remains.* 



* " The Freshwater Strata of Hordvrell Cliff, Beacon Cliff, and Barton 

 Cliff:" Transaction* of the Geological Society, second series, vol. ii., p. 287. 



f " Stratigraphical Account of the Section of Hordwell, Beckton, and 

 Barton Cliffs :" The Annals and Magazine of Natural History, June, 1851. 

 In making these measurements I was very greatly assisted by the Rev. 

 W. Fox, who was most untiring to ensure accuracy. 



J See the Geological Journal, vol. iv.. p. 17 : as also, Professor Owen's 

 Monograph, on " The Fossil Reptilia of the London Clay," published by the 

 Palaeontographical Society, 1850, p. 48. 



238 



