209 



the authority of the latter gentleman, some facts which indicate a re- 

 semblance between the loM'er part of the section there and at Hythe. 



In sinking a well about six years ago (1837), at Barming Heath, on 

 the south-w^est of Maidstone, Mr. Bensted found the whole thick- 

 ness of the stone and hassock (after passing through about 20 feet 



of loose stone and red clay), to be about 130 feet. 



Immediately below was dark greensand, including a Venus, Gervillia, 

 Ammonites, and other fossils, about 10 feet. . .... Total 140 feet. 



And finally clay, " not that of the Wealden," about 30 feet. 



at which depth the sinking was discontinued. 

 Mr. Simms's section gives for the total thickness of the calcareous 

 quarry-stone and hassock, at Hythe, 115 feet; beneath is sand 

 and stone, supposed to belong to the calcareous group, 14 feet. 



Total 129 feet. 

 And then, down to the Wealden, a succession of clays which include 

 peculiar marine fossils, amounting to 49 feet 6 inches ; exceeding the 

 thickness of the clay sunk into beneath the quarry-stone at Barming 

 Heath by about 30 feet.' 



The sinking therefore near Maidstone accords, so far as it goes, 

 with that of Hythe, in exhibiting a considerable thickness of marine 

 clay between the quarry-stone and the Wealden. 



§. The author remarked, in passing from the railway at Paddock 

 Wood to Maidstone, through Nettlestead and Wateringbury, that a 

 tract of very irregular heights projects beyond the line which he had 

 coloured as greensand ; and extends from East Peckham towards Lo- 

 dington, in some places to more than a mile beyond what seems to 

 be the plateau of the Kentish rag. Mr. Bensted has since informed 

 him that, near Wateringbury, a bank of blue clay crops out, above the 

 Wealden and below the greensand. This region therefore ofters 

 a point for inquiry ; and there is great probability of its affording 

 sections of this lower clay. 



§. An examination of the fossils, and of the substances which in- 

 clude them, brought up from the shaft sunk by Mr. Simms beneath 

 the lowest stone-beds at Hythe, leaves no doubt of the very strong- 

 resemblance of this part of the Kentish series, to that which has 

 been described at Athei-field in the Isle of Wight. The principal 

 difference between the lowest clay at the two places, consists in the 

 absence, at Hythe, of any bed of stone, like that at the bottom of 

 the Atherfield section, which abounds so very remarkably in fossils. 

 §. Although the section of the lower greensand on the Kentish 

 coast is more full and complete than that between Blackgang Chine 

 and Atherfield, the latter has the great advantage of being perfectly 

 disclosed and continuous, from the top to the bottom, so that the 

 whole succession can be readily examined in detail : while it is 

 evident, from the perfect conformity of the beds and their general 

 consistency of character, that their deposition was not only unin- 

 terrupted by stratigraphical disturbance, but probably unaccompa- 

 nied by any great change in the conditions of the fluid by which 

 they were deposited. 



§. The absence, in the Isle of Wight, of limc'elone resembling that 



