94 GEOLOGY OF THE ISLE OF WIGHT. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

 EOCENE. 



Intkoduction. 



The Eocene strata of the Isle of Wiglit may, as a whole, be 

 more conveniently studied in the cliffs in Alum Bay* than in any 

 other part of the Island. 



In this remarkable section the whole of the strata from the 

 Chalk to the Fluvio-marine formation are displaj'^ed in unbroken 

 succession, and that too in a manner the most favourable for close 

 examination, in consequence of their being thrown into a vertical 

 position by the action of the same elevatory force which has caused 

 the Chalk to assume its present high incUnation. 



When the face of the cliiFs has been laid more than usually 

 bare, and the colours of the various beds have been heightened by 

 heavy rains, the aspect of the bay, always beautiful, is rendered 

 still more striking. Every bed is then revealed to the eye from 

 the base of the cliif to where it crops out at its summit, and while 

 some of the beds attract the attention by their contrast in colour, 

 others, like the coals in the Bracklesham series, the conglomerate 

 bed dividing that series from the overlying Barton Clay, and the 

 bed of white pipeclay in the Lower Bagshot scries which is so 

 crowded with vegetable remains, are not only rendered con- 

 spicuous by their different colours, but, standing out from the rest 

 of the strata, they become useful by enabling the observer more 

 readily to perceive from a distance the positions and limits of the 

 various formations. 



No drawing without the appliance of colour can do justice to 

 the section, and even then no artist is capable of rendering a 

 faithful and characteristic representation of it, who does not (like 

 the late lamented Edward Forbes) combine with a dexterous use 

 of the pencil a thorough knowledge of the geological structure of 

 the scene he wishes to delineate. 



Reading Beds. 



The lowest member of the Tertiary Group in the Isle of Wight is 

 the Reading Series of Prof. Prestwich, formerly called the " Plastic 

 Clay " from the occurrence in it of beds used in the manufacture 

 of tiles and coarse earthenware. Owing to the strata being nearly 

 vertical throughout the Island, this division can only be examined 

 at Alum and Whitecliff Bays. Formerly there were pottery 

 works at Newport in the red clays, but the pits are now fiUed up 

 and overgrown. The only other inland sections now visible are 

 near Brading ; in a railway cutting at Ashey ; and at Downend 

 Brickyard, near Arreton. The last has been opened since the 



* So called from the quantities of alum formerly manufactured there. 



