260 GEOLOGY OF THE ISLE OF WIGHT. 



emerging out of whose waters the white cliffs 

 from Brighthelmston quite to Beachy-head, are 

 distinctly visible, though from forty to sixty miles 

 distant." * 



The western cliff of Shanklin Chine consists of 

 an alternating series of clays and sands. The upper 

 part is greenish-white sand, resting on a bed of 

 dark-blue clay ; beneath this is another stratum 

 of sand, and a second bed of clay lying on a 

 deposit of greenish-grey sand, with bands of sand- 

 stone. ' The lower part consists of ferruginous 

 sands, with concretionary layers of green sand full 

 of terebratulse. The argillaceous partings have 

 given rise to narrow ledges, which are verdant 

 from a covering of rank grass ; but slips are con- 

 tinually taking place from the wasting away of 

 the sand, by the oozing of the water arrested 

 in its descent from the porous strata above, by 

 these beds of clay. 



Along this shore numerous specimens of the 

 gryphea sinuata are generally to be met with 

 loose in the sea-sand, as at Atherfield; and iron- 

 stone concretions full of shells, that have fallen 

 from the cliffs: in these nodules, leaflets of the 

 Wealden fern (Ugn. 21) are sometimes found asso- 

 ciated with trigonise, terebratula?, &c. 



* Sir H. Engelfield's Isle of Wight, p. 70. 



