42 GEOLOGY OF THE ISLE OF WIGHT. 



the o;round. The Ferruginous Sands stretch away In a broken 

 table-land to the cliffs of Atherfield and to the southern hills of 

 the Island. The Sand-reck Beds form a series of rounded hills, 

 capped by the Carstone, and fringing the more continuous escarp- 

 ments formed by the Chert Beds of the Upper Greensand and by 

 the Chalk, while a belt of ground, characterised by its gentle 

 slopes and generally by its comparative lowness, marks the 

 position of the Gault. These features are all well displayed in 

 the valley followed by the Chillerton road near Billingham. 

 The best section in the Sand-rock Series occurs by that road-side ; 

 the Ferruginous Sands are well exposed in the road-cuttings at 

 Kingston. 



Near Cridmore the upper part of the Ferruginous Sands con- 

 tains beds of bright-yellow and white sand, much like the Sand- 

 rock Series, and making it difficult to decide on a boundary 

 line. 



After passing the Medina, however, the base of the Sand-rock 

 Series is marked by a bed of coarse white quartz-grit. The bed 

 is seen south of the Star Inn and near Upper Yard, but more 

 clearly in a small pit, 300 yards north-west of Birchmore. There, 

 and in the road-cutting close by, it may be described as a fine 

 gravel, so large are the grains of quartz. The sauds above this 

 bed are seen in a pit south of Pagham ; they are white and 

 current-bedded with lenticular ferruginous beds. The few 

 sections in the beds below show brown and yellow ferruginous 

 sands. 



The next section occurs in the Sand-rock Series in the lane 

 running east from Blackwater Station. Here white sand and 

 sand-rock were formerly dug. The base of the series is marked 

 by springs and other indications of clay-beds. The same beds 

 are repeatedly exposed in the lanes about Marvel, and arc now 

 being dug in a large sand-pit in Marvel Wood, where the following 

 section is exposed : — 



Marvel Wood Smid-pit, 



Feet. 

 Carstone ; a ferruginous grit, cemented irregularly in bands ]>y 

 iron-oxide; some of the lower beds contain small pebbles. 

 Top not seen - - - -- - -12 



f Grey sand with fragments of clay, with the ap- 

 pearance of being a reconstructed bed [see 

 also p. 5(5), resting on the edges of the cur- 

 rent-bedding planes of - - - 3 

 White sand with lines of blue clay - - 30-f- 



45 



The strata dip, so far as can be judged, to the south-west at a 

 o-cntle angle ; but a few yards further on rapidly roll over and 

 plunge down to the north. From this point eaf?twards the series 

 runs in n narrow belt near and i)arallel to the central Downs of the 

 Island. The centre of the anticlinal axis described above seems to 



Sand-rock 

 Series. "^ 



