Notices of Memoirs — Stonesfield Slate Report. 517 



distance had been increased to 152 yards, proving an erosion of 

 S yards in 20 months, but as they included two winters the loss 

 would be about 4 yards per annum. 



South of Dove Point the erosion gradually decreases, but 50 yards 

 of the sand-hills have been washed away on the north-east of 

 Sandhey, though not in recent years, as there is now a fringe of 

 grass growing in the denuded bay for about 100 yards, when it 

 gradually dies away. The grounds along the sea-front at Sandhey 

 are protected by an embankment and groins, which arrest the 

 encroachment of the sea. Beyond, in front of Hoylake, there is no 

 erosion, and the Red Stones at Hilbre Point protect the land from 

 the sea. 



V. — Stonesfield Slate. — Third and Final Report of the Committee, 

 consisting of H. B. Woodward (Chairman), E. A. Walford,' 

 F.G.S. (Secretary), Professor A. H. Green, Dr. H. 

 Woodward, and J. Windoes, appointed to open further 

 sections in the neighbourhood of Stonesfield in order to show 

 the relationship of the Stonesfield Slate to the underlying and 

 overlying strata. (Drawn up by Edwin A. Walford, F.G.S., 

 Secretary.) 



rPHE succession from the Great Oolite through the Stonesfield 

 J_ Slate into the Inferior Oolite, as shown in the sections made by 

 your Committee, may be thus summarized : — 



Ft. in. 



{Limestone with corals 

 Limestone and marls with Ostrea (oyster beds)... 17 3 

 Slate beds (Stonesfield Slate) ... ... ... 5 3 



I Fawn-coloured limestone with lignite and car- 

 Fullonian \ bonaceous markings (Chipping Norton Lime- 



( stone) about 18 



I Sandy limestones with some marl beds ; lower 

 limestone with vertical plant-markings 

 (Lower Estuarine Series) ... ... ... 11 

 Cli/petis-grit : zone of Ammonites Parkinsoni ... 13 

 (About 12 feet of Inferior Oolite strata can be made out below.) 



The faulted state of the bank prevents exact measurement of the 

 series now assumed to be Fullonian. These beds had previously 

 been classed with the Inferior Oolite. Notwithstanding the great 

 care taken in making a practically vertical section, a series of Great 

 Oolite beds was found at a much lower level than the Slate. The 

 error was indicated in the Second Report, and the greater part of 

 beds Nos. 18 to 2G has to be excised from the list. 



The additions to our knowledge consist mainly in the discovery of 

 the strata with vertical plant-markings (evidently the equivalent of 

 the Lower Estuarine Series of the Northamptonshire Inferior 

 Oolite), and in the particulars given of the thickness of the higher 

 beds of the Inferior Oolite and the Fullonian strata. Fawler, two 

 miles distant, has been supposed to mark the virtual disappearance 

 of the Inferior Oolite. Sir Joseph Prestwich, however, had grouped 

 with the Inferior Oolite certain beds (14 feet 6 inches thickj which 



