508 REPORT — 1882. 



Solen, besides the well-known coral Litharea Websteri. The Park bed is situated 

 close to the shore, and is accessible at low water. It is here at low spring tides that 

 the very recent post-Pleiocene beds may be seen overlying the Eocene deposits. At 

 the Bill the Eocene beds are shown at low water in large detached portions called 

 the 'Clibs/the lai'ger portion lying to the south-west, and the so-called 'Mixen Rocks,' 

 marked by the ' Mixen Pole,' trend about a mile out in the sea. From these rocks, 

 which extend a mile and a half east and west, and varying from 200 to 400 yards 

 wide, is procured the AlveoUna or foraminiferal limestone ; the ' Clibs ' rock contains 

 scarcely any other fossil remains. The Houngate Rocks, the same as the Mixen, are 

 situated opposite Old Thorney Station House, and visible at low water ; they are 

 nearly a mile in extent, and vary from 50 to 60 yards in width. Certain fossils 

 have given names to the beds that range through the bay. The remarkable shells 

 Cypraia Coombii, the great Ceritheum (C. (ligantemn), and C. cornucopics, Veneri- 

 cardia planicosta, TurriteUa terehellata, Conus diadema, Sec, amongst many others, 

 aid us to determine the beds stratigraphically ; locally the ' Barn bed,' ' Palate 

 bed,' ' Veuericardia bed,' the ' Park,' &c., serve to mai-k horizons of importance. 



Opposite the New Thorney Station are the Scrobicularia or Lutraria clays or 

 mud deposits from which the elephant remains were obtained. 



The Rev. Osmond Fisher, in his description of the ' Bracklesham beds ' of the 

 Isle of Wight basin, restricts the name to a group of strata rich in organic 

 remains, the greater part of which are displayed at low water upon the shore at 

 Bracklesham Bay in Sussex. He also includes under that name higher beds than 

 any seen at Bracklesham Bay that occur at Stubbington and the New Forest. He 

 groups certain strata which appear to intervene between the base of the Barton 

 series and the highest beds at Bracklesham Bay on account of their containing 

 an assemblage of fossils more akin to the fauna of the Bracklesham than the 

 Barton. 



' No marine fossiliferous beds are known beloiv the lowest at Bracklesham Bay, 

 until we reach the Bognor Rock of the London clay — at Bognor — except it be a 

 thin stratum of clay at the very base of the Bracklesham series at Whitecliff Bay. 

 The following shells range through the Bracklesham group, and are confined to it, 

 viz., Venericardia jdanicosta, Sanguinolaria HoUotoaysii, Solen ohliquus, Cytherea 

 suberycinoides, Valuta cithara, Turritella sulcifera, and I'ecten coiiieus ; the last- 

 named species occurs in the High Cliff beds.' The Rev. 0.- Fisher, through the 

 confined range of certain species, has divided the whole series into four prin- 

 cipal groups. Vide ' Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society,' vol. xviii. 

 pp. 66-75. 



Group A The upper, abounding in gasteropoda, and has one of its fossil beds 

 in the eastern part of its range full of Nummvlina variolaria. 



Group B is more sandy in its general condition, and distinguished by the 

 presence of the large gasteropoda. Cerithium giganteum, Numtrndina 

 variolaria, occurs in this member at Whiteclitf Bay. 



Group C Sandy like the last, but its chief fossil-bearing bed is profusely 

 crowded with Nummulina Icevigata. 



Group D embraces the lowest fossiliferous sands of Bracklesham Bay. The. 

 distinctive shells are Cardita acuticosta and Cyprma tuberculosa. 



Bracldesham beds at Whitecliff Bay. — These beds rest on the Lower Bagshot 

 sands, and agree with bed No. 6 of Professor Prestwich's section, their base being 

 distinguished by a bed of rolled flint pebbles about 1 foot in thickness. 



Reading in descending order Mr. Fisher's group A, including the beds xLx., 

 xviii., xvii., xvi., xv., xiv., and xiii., correspond with the beds numbered 17, 16, 

 15, and 14 in Professor Prestwich's ; together they measure 254 feet. The position 

 of the beds here renders them easily accessible at Bracklesham Bay, but they are 

 nearly horizontal, and consequently must be paced to be understood. Beds 

 No. xvii. and xiv. of Group A ai'e the most fossiliferous, and both contain 

 Nummulina variolaria. 



Mr. Fisher's Group B includes beds xii., xi., x., and ix., or Professor Prest- 



I 



