The Hunting Bridge Beds. 



Some few words must be said about them. The highest 

 beds, known as the Hunting Bridge Beds, occur in Copse 

 St. Leonards, not far from the Fritham Road.* In a descend- 

 ing order, separated by thirty or forty feet of unfossiliferous 

 clays, come the Shepherd's Gutter Beds, to be found about 

 half-a-mile lower down the King's Gairn Brook; and below 

 them, again, separated by forty or fifty feet of unfossiliferous 

 clays, and situated somewhat more than a mile lower down the 

 same stream, rise the Brook Beds. Still farther down, too, 

 from some shells very lately discovered at Cadenham, it is sup- 

 posed that the Ceritkium Bed of Stubbington and Bracklesham 

 Bay will be found, but this is not yet ascertained. 



The Hunting Bridge Beds I have never examined, but 

 subjoin their measurements, as also their most typical shells,f 



* All these beds are shown in the large map by the word " Fossils," 

 there not being space enough to particularize each bed. 



f These beds were discovered by Mr. Fisher in 1861, and for the 

 following measurements I am indebted to Mr. Keeping. We find, about 

 one hundred yards in a south-eastward direction from the point where the 

 footpath from Brook to Fritham crosses the stream, (1) the Coral Bed, 

 the equivalent of that at Stubbington, full of crushed Dentalia and 

 Serpula, six inches. (2) Sandy light blue clay, with very few fossils, 

 seven feet. (3) Verdigris-green and slate-coloured clay, characterized near 

 the top by a new species of Dentalium, SerpulorMs Morchii (?), and Spondylus ~ 

 rarispina. The other typical shells are Valuta Maga, several species of 

 Area and Corbula gallica, five feet. It is in this bed that large roots of 

 trees and ferns are found. 



No persons, however, I should suppose, would think of examining any 

 of these beds without first consulting Mr. Fisher's most valuable paper on 

 the Bracklesham Beds in the Proceedings of the Geological Society, May, 

 1862. And I should further most strongly advise them, if they wish to 

 become practically acquainted with the beds, to procure the assistance of 

 Mr. Keeping, of Freshwater, in the Isle of Wight. 



I may here further mention that a well is at the present moment being 

 sunk at Emery Down, and which, as I learn from Mr. Keeping, gives the 



I I L' 24.-; 



