PLATEAU GRAVELS. 215 



Feet. 

 Gravel - - - - - - - -11 



Sand 20 



Today 31_ 



The sand crops out in Ruffin's Copse, and there yields a con- 

 siderable supply of water. 



The resemblance of this sand to that found in Goodwood Park, 

 near Chichester, is so great, and the height (130 feet) coincides 

 so exactly, that careful search was made here for marine shells. 

 Nothing;, however, could be found, the bed appearing to have 

 been thoroughly decalcified ; it has no impervious covering like 

 that which has preserved the deposit with its shells at Goodwood. 



Returning to the neighbourhood of the Downs, we find close to 

 Gunville a mass of flint shingle at a height of 140 feet. This 

 does not appear to have any connexion with the Oligocene or 

 Eocene Beds, neither does it seem to belong to the ordinary 

 I'lateau Gravels, Its true position must at present be left 

 uncertain for want of sections. 



For three miles west of Gunville no gravels occur near the 

 Downs, and denudation has been so great that the outliers near 

 the Solent, thoroughly isolated, cannot be traced to their place of 

 origin. 



Thorncss and Rew Street. 



The only pit now open in the Rew Street outlier is one in 

 its south-east corner. This, however, does not show much of 

 the gravel, but has been opened for sand, like that three-quarters 

 of a mile further east in Ruffin's Copse. This sand has been 

 exposed to a depth of 12 feet, but no fossils could be found. 

 Its height above the sea is slightly over 100 feet. 



The outlier east of Great Thorness shows no section. Its 

 heiglit is about 130 feet. The larger outlier west of Great 

 Thorness is worked to a depth of 15 feet, and slopes markedly 

 to the eastward, not to the west, where the larger valley lies. 



Hamstead. 



The sheet of Plateau Gravel at Hamstead appears to have no 

 connexion with the present system of drainage. At the highest 

 point, close to Hamstead Farm, it reaches 200 feet, but in every 

 direction except the north-west, where it is cut off by the cliff, 

 it quickly sinks to the 100-feet contour, or even lower. This 

 sheet is composed of partly-worn flint gravel, with many quartz 

 pebbles and occasional blocks of grey wether sandstone. Greensand 

 chert was not observed in it. 



Galhourne. 



Some gravels near Calbourne seem to belong to this series, 

 though they are probably somewhat newer than the outliers of 

 Hamstead and Headon Hill. They range in height from 200 feet 

 at Westover to 120 feet near Newbridge. 



