272 OUR COMMON BRITISH FOSSILS. 



fully preserved fossil plants, are also well known at 

 Alum Bay, Isle of Wight 



The Thanet Sands may be seen resting on the 

 Chalk in the large pit close by Charlton Station, near 

 Woolwich, and some fine fossils characteristic of this 

 deposit may be obtained there, such as Turritella, 

 Cyprina, Aporrhairs, Corbula^ etc. 



The Woolwich and Reading beds are excavated 

 into, or else they naturally crop out in various places 

 about London, as at Woolwich, Blackheath, Reading, 



Fig. 260. Cyrena antiqua. 



etc. Banks of fossil oysters (Ostrea bellorvacina) are 

 found ; Bromley being perhaps the best place to get 

 them. Melania, Cyrena cuneiformis, and other mol- 

 lusca, all of which indicate brackish-water conditions, 

 are plentiful near Woolwich and New Charlton. These 

 and other fossils are also found near Dulwich, Lewis- 

 ham, and Peckham. 



The London Clay is of course the thickest and 

 most important member of our English Eocene for- 

 mation. Fossils, however, only occur in it here and 

 there, and at different horizons. The Isle of Sheppey 

 has long been famous as the best collecting-ground, 



