222 GEOLOGY OF THE ISLE OF WIGHT. 



may be referred to this series, or may be considered as thick 

 deposits of rainwash. Such local deposits of loam are common 

 over the Tertiary area, but can seldom be mapped, as without 

 sections they are indistinguishable from the older Tertiary clays. 

 In the upper part of the patch at Howgate Farm Mr. Codrington 

 found a palseolithic implement — the only one yet found in the 

 Isle of Wight. 



TFootton Creek. 



There are now no sections visible in the brick-earth of this 

 locality, and it has been found impossible to map such small 

 patches in the absence of sections. The following account is taken 

 from Forbes' Memoir, but, since it was written, a large bone has 

 been dug out of the brick-earth from a well close to the Baptist 

 Chapel at Wootton Bridge. This bone has not been satisfactorily 

 determined. It has been described as a tusk of elephant, but its 

 discoverer, Mr. Newbury, says it was pointed at each end. 



" Along the western side of Wootton Creek, on the slope of the 

 banks, are considerable deposits of rich umber-brown sandy clay, 

 with scattered, small, and but slightly worn fragments of flints. 

 This clay is of considerable thickness in places, varying from 

 6 and 8 to 20 or 30 feet. It shows only very shght evidence 

 of successive deposition ; it extends to a height of 30 feet or more 

 up the slope of the hill, and appears to be distributed in extensive 

 patches. It ceases altogether before the lower edge of the gravels 

 that cap the hill above is i-eached, the interval being occupied by 

 Eocene clays. Patches of brick-earth occur also, though ap- 

 parently more sparingly, on the eastern side of the creek ; it may 

 be seen along the edge of the shore of the Solent at Fish-house, 

 at the eastern angle of the creek. It is highly prized as a brick- 

 earth, and was in requisition for the bricks used in the new ibrtifi- 

 cations at Sconce." 



Medina Valley. 



There is apparently little gravel or brick earth in the Medina 

 valley, the only patches of importance lying between Newport and 

 Shide. 



At Shide the brick-earth was formerly dug, but all the pits 

 are now closed. On the west side of St. John's Road a large pit, 

 still w^orked, extends as far south as Elm Grove. The upper end of 

 this pit was opened for sand (Lower Bagshot Sand), but the part 

 now worked lies in brick-earth with carbonaceous seams. No 

 fossils have been found here. At first sight this sheet of brick- 

 earth might be expected to underlie great part of Newport, but 

 drainage works showed Oligocene i^eds so near the surface as to 

 suggest that the loam must occupy a lateral valley extending 

 towards Carisbrooke. 



A short distance further north gravel has been dug on both 

 sides of the Medina. The patches are interesting, inasmuch as 

 they contain a much larger proportion of Greensand chert than is 

 found in the plateau gravels. It seems clear that in this case 



