TRANSACTION'S OF SECTION C. 503 



connected with the stratigraphical position of certain beds in the Eocene strata of 

 the Isle of Wight ; a question of local geological interest, as well as bearing upon 

 the correlation of the Tertiary rocks of Hampshire with those of France, Belgium, 

 and Germany. Instead, therefore, of offering to the Geological Section an address 

 on some special subject or branch of general geology, I have deemed it more in- 

 teresting, aod certainly more useful, to lay before you an outline of certainphysical 

 features occurring within the immediate neighbourhood, and the district in which 

 we are now assembled. 



I purpose therefore to call attention to the local geology of this area, especially 

 as regards the Tertiary deposits of Hampshire and Sussex, as forming or con- 

 .stituting the northern portion of a vast series of deposits once continuous to 

 Northern France, the area now covered by the English Channel and the Solent, 

 and lying in the depression of the Jurassic and cretaceous series. The relation also 

 of the Hampshire and Anglo-French basin and its tertiary fauna to that of the 

 London or Anglo-Belgian area will receive notice, as being part of the history of one 

 great period, the strata comprising the two areas being also once continuous, much 

 of it being subsequently removed or denuded away from those areas now occupied 

 by the English Channel and German Ocean. 



Before especially noticing the Isle of Wight and the neighbouring cuasts, I must 

 state that by laborious search over both old and new ground, and through the very 

 careful examination of collected specimens during the past twenty years, great light 

 has been thrown on the geological structure of many local areas hitherto obscure 

 from want of critical palseontological knowledge being brought to bear iipon the 

 fossil fauna or flora characterising the various marine and freshwater deposits with_ 

 which the surrounding district aboimds. Greater precision has of late been arrived 

 at in the chronological arrangement of the cretaceous and tertiary strata which 

 occur both in the Isle of Wight and on the mainland. _ -^ 



Doubtless you are all aware that the strictest investigation as to the distribu- 

 tion and organic contents of the Fluvio-marine Tertiaries of the Isle of Wight, was 

 undertaken by Professor Edward Forbes, when attached to the Geological Survey 

 from the years 1848-50, and subsequently Mr. H. W. Bristow, F.E.S., completed 

 all the older tertiaries and cretaceous rocks of the island, thus producing a complete 

 geological guide to this portion of the Hampshire basin. The structure of the 

 opposite coast to the east, or that embracmg Bracklesham Bay, Selsea, and 

 Bognor, was critically treated by Mr. Frederick Dixon in the year 1850,^ who 

 was most ably assisted in his palseontological researches by the most distinguished 

 natiu-alists then living, each faunal group receiving critical supervision and de- 

 scription. A second edition of this valuable work appeared in 1878, wherein much 

 new geological and palfeontological matter is added. Both the Cretaceous and 

 Tertiary reptiles were figured and described by Professors Owen and Bell, the 

 fishes by Sir Philip Egerton, the Cretaceous echinodermata by Professor Forbes ; 

 Mr. Sowerby described the mollusca, the large Crustacea were described by Pro- 

 fessor Bell, and the corals by Lonsdale. 



Selsea. 



I now draw your attention to a locality of extreme interest both to the geologist 

 and archajologist, and where cause and effect are manifested in both investig.itious, 

 the historical portion being based upon physical causes and changes that have long 

 been, and are still going on, to modify the form, extent, and structure of tlie Sussex 

 coast, from the mouth of Cliichester Harbour to Littlehampton and Bognor. In 

 the year 1855 Mr. liobert Godwin- Austen, F.R.S. and G.S., read before tlie Geolo- 

 gical Society an elaborate paper upon the ' Newer Tertiary Deposits of tlie Sussex 

 Coast,' in wliich he also noticed some peculiar features in the parts of the Isle of 

 Wight and South Hants bordering the Solent. 



From Beachy Head to Selsea Bill, the coast line lies east and west, so that 



' The (icoloqri and Fossih of tlie Tertiary and Cretaceous Formativiis of Sui3«a$. . 

 By F. Dixon. Ist ed. 1850, 2nd ed. 1878. 



