The late Sir Joseph PresUvich — The Solent River. 349 



the Carboniferous Limestone Series of Scotland represents both the 

 Yoredale Eocks and the Mountain Limestone of England, and 

 that the Calciferous Sandstone is older than the Mountain Limestone. 

 The newer reading, that the Scottish Limestone Series is the 

 equivalent of the Yoredale Beds, and the Calciferous Sandstone 

 of the Mountain Limestone, is a nearer approximation to the truth, 

 but is still far from being correct, especially as it has been shown 

 that the greater part of the Scottish Carboniferous Limestone Series, 

 including the upper limestones and the whole of the Edge Coal 

 Series, lies above the position of the Yoredale Beds of Phillips. 



IIL — The Solent Eiver. 

 By the late Sir Joseph Prestwich, M.A., D.C.L., F.E.S. 



(Communicated by Lady Prestwich.) 



[The idea of a great river flowing through the Solent before the 

 Isle of Wight was separated from Dorsetshire, was very clearly 

 stated in 1862 by the Rev, W. Fox, who for many years was Curate 

 of Brixton, in the Isle of Wight (^Geologist, vol. v, p. 452), The 

 subject was further dealt with two years later by Sir John Evans 

 (Quart, Journ. Geol. Soc, vol. xx, p, 189), and subsequently by 

 Mr, T, Codrington (ibid,, vol, xxvi, pp. 641, 544), Sir John Evans 

 has since entered more fully into the subject (" Ancient Stone 

 Implements, etc., of Great Britain," and Nature, vol, xxvi, p, 532) ; 

 and it was briefly discussed by Sir J. Prestwich in his paper on 

 "The Eaised Beaches and 'Head' or Eubble-drift of the South of 

 England : their Eolation to the Valley Drifts and to the Glacial 

 Period ; and on a late Post-Glacial Submergence " (Quart. Journ. 

 Geol. Soc, vol. xlviii, p, 274), 



The following article was marked by Sir J, Pi-estwich as " part of 

 Submergence paper as first written but reserved for a sejparate 

 paper,"— H, B. W,] 



T Portsea Island a change takes place in the character of the 

 drift, the 5 to 6 feet of gravelly clay forming the " Head " on 

 the Old Beach to the east, being replaced on the same level by 

 a bed of gravel, which, according to Mr. T, Codrington, attains 

 a thickness of 27 feet, and still contains some boulders similar to 

 those of Hayling Island, together with blocks of sarsenstone. To the 

 w^est of Gosport the ground rises and the low cliffs of Stubbington 

 and Hill Head are capped by 10 to 15 feet of gravel of a somewhat 

 different character. No foreign boulders are to be seen in it, though 

 I have found pebbles of quartzite derived apparently from the 

 Triassio strata of Devonshire, as also some small subangular frag- 

 ments of granite and other old rocks, large blocks of Tertiary 

 Sandstone, and a few worn fragments of a fresh- water limestone ^ 

 containing small Lymnem. There are no shells either fluviatile or 

 marine, and no beach underlies the gravel which rests directly on 

 the Tertiary strata. It is intercalated with seams of sand and loam 



1 Derived from the opposite coast of the Isle of Wight. 



