284 GEOLOGY OF THE ISLE OF WIGHT. 



pine-forest, transported from a distance by the river 

 which flowed through the country whence the 

 Wealden deposits were derived, and became sub- 

 merged in the sand and mud of the delta, burying 

 with it the bones of reptiles, mussel-shells, and 

 other extraneous bodies it had gathered in its 

 course. 



In the strata that overlie the fossil forest, thin 

 interrupted seams of lignite,* and masses of the 

 same substance invested with crystals of brilliant 

 pyrites, are every where abundant ; and beautiful 

 and instructive specimens may be obtained. f 

 In the clays for several hundred yards both to 

 the east and west of Brook Point, bones of the 

 Wealden reptiles are numerous ; with these are 

 associated large mussel-shells {PL VI. fig. 1), and 

 lignite. To the east of Brook Bay is Brixton 

 Bay; and along this line of coast, as far as Ather- 

 field, similar organic remains art' continually met 

 with after the high tides of the early spring. 

 I have not examined the cliffs further to the 

 eastward, and must refer to Dr. Fitton's Memoir 

 for a particular enumeration of every important 



* Lignite, &c— for an account of the changes by which vegetable sub- 

 stances are converted into lignite, coal, &c, see Medals of Creation, vol. i 

 chap .">. 



t Unfortunately these specimens generally fall to pieces after a few 

 months, in consequence of the decomposition of the pyrites with which they 

 are permi 



