PLATEAU GEAVELS. 217 



Several other pits between this brick-yard and Oakfiekl show 

 similar beds, the sand always lying beloAV the gravel. Search was 

 made there for fossils, but none could be found. 



The large irregular outlier at S.t. Helen's consists also of shingle, 

 but offers no sections, except in the cliff above Priory Woods. 

 Unfortunately the exact heiglits of the outliers east of Ryde cannot 

 be given as no contours are found on this part of the map. 



Bemhridge. 



The last outlier to be described is the sheet of shingle between 

 Bembridge and the Foreland. This mass, well seen in the 

 cliffs, rests on a surface of Bembridge Marl sloping to the 

 north-east, so that the gravel descends almost to the sea-level in 

 that direction. To the south-west it rises rapidly, but instead 

 of disappearing gradually it seems to abut against a steep bank 

 of clay near Howgate Farm. At the same time the boulders 

 become much larger, so that between the Foreland Inn and 

 the old cliff the gravel consists of a mass of coarse flint shingle, 

 25 feet thick, with current-bedding dipping to the north-east. 

 Towards Tyne Hall and East GlifF Lodge the shingle is finer and 

 has a thickness of about 15 feet. Though this gravel consists 

 mainly of flint pebbles, mixed with them there is a noticeable 

 quantity of Greensand chert and sandstone, ironstone, a small 

 proportion of greywether sandstone, and occasional pebbles of 

 veined grit and quartz. 



The shingle just described is so similar, both in position and 

 character to that found at Selsey in Sussex, 12 miles to the 

 east, that search was made here for the associated bed of marine 

 shells which has yielded so large a fauna in Sussex. Unfortu- 

 nately the Bembridge gravel is so full of Avater and slips so much 

 over the clay that it is generally impossible to examine its bottom, 

 and no shell bed was met with, As the shells at Selsey only 

 occur in local patches under the shingle, some section exposed 

 by a storm may yet show a relic of this curious marine bed in 

 the Bembridge peninsula. Tliis bed should be searched for when- 

 ever the base of the gravel is exposed. 



So greatly do tiie gravels in the north-eastern portion of the 

 Isle of Wight resemble the lower series at Brighton, Goodwood, 

 and Selsey in position, materials, and arrangejnent, that they not 

 improbably belong to the same period. The curious change the 

 Plateau Gravels undergo when traced westward seems to point 

 to the higher portions being sub-aerial continuations of the lower 

 marine beds. How these angular Plateau Gravels vvere formed 

 still remains uncertain. 



Blake Down, Neivchurch, Alverstone, and Sandown. 



The features above described in St. George's Down are repro- 

 duced, but on a smaller scale and at a lower level, in the gravel 



