BROOK AND ATHERFIELD 31 



The Wealden of Brook and the neighbouring coast is 

 celebrated for the number of bones of great reptiles found 

 here, from the early days of geological research, the *20's 

 and 'so's of last century, when admirable early geologists, 

 such as Dr. Buckland and Dr. Mantell, were discovering 

 the wonders of that ancient world, to the present time. 

 Various reptiles have been found besides the Iguanodon 

 the Megalosaurus, a great reptile somewhat similar, but 

 of lighter build, with sabre-shaped teeth, with serrated 

 edges : the Hylaeosaurus, a smaller creature with an 

 armour of plates on the back, and a row of angular spines 

 aJong the middle of the back ; the huge Hoplosaurus 

 hulkei, probably 70 or 80 feet in length ; the marine 

 Plesiosaurus and Ichthyosaurus, and several more ; also 

 bones of a freshwater turtle and four types of crocodiles. 

 In various beds a large freshwater shell, Unio valdensis, 

 occurs, and in the cliffs of Brook have been found many 

 cones of Cycadean plants. In bands of white sandy clay 

 are fragments of ferns, Lonchoptcris Mantelli. In the 

 shales are bands of limestone with Cyrena, Paludina, and 

 small oysters, and paper shales with cyprids, as at San- 

 down. The shore near Atherfield Point is covered with 

 fallen blocks of the limestones. 



The Lower Greensand is seen in Compton Bay on the 

 northern side of the Brook anticline. Here is a great 

 slip of Atherfield clay. The beds above the clay are 

 much thinner than at Atherfield, and fossils are com- 

 paratively scarce. On the south of the anticline the 

 Perna bed slopes down to the sea about 150 yards east of 

 Atherfield Point, and runs out to sea as a reef. Large 

 blocks lie on the shore, where numerous fossils may be 

 found on the weathered surfaces. The ledges which here 

 run out to sea form a dangerous reef, on which many 

 vessels have struck. There is now a bell buoy on the reef. 

 On the headland is a coastguard station, and till lately 

 there has been a sloping wooden way from the top of the 



