1844.] 401 



appears, even in the Isle of Wight itself, between the nearly hori- 

 zontal strata at Atherfield and Shanklin, and their continuation in 

 the vertical strata at the Red- Cliff between Sandown and Culver. 

 The distance in a direct line of the two sections we have just com- 

 pared, from Atherfield to Hythe, is less than 95 miles ; while that 

 of their foi'eign equivalents is, — in the case of the Aube, about 285 

 English miles ; from Atherfield to Neufchatel is about 440 miles ; 

 to Hanover the distance is not less than 450 miles ; and to the 

 Crimea is 1650 miles. From the Neufchatel deposit, which M. 

 Dubois has emphatically identified with that of the Crimea, the 

 distance is not less than 1300 miles. 



§. Such being the strata in the two principal sections of our coast, 

 let us next inquire what are their equivalents in other parts of the 

 globe. This question has of late acquired new importance, from 

 the proofs of the wide diffusion of the cretaceous system, and the 

 almost surprising agreement of its fossils in very distant places. 



A brief general statement concerning the Terrain Neocomien 

 has been given by Mr. Murchison in his Address to the Geolo- 

 gical Society at the Anniversary of 1843. It may be useful to 

 bring together some of the descriptions of those distant deposits, 

 though it would be diflacult in a small compass to give even an 

 abstract of the various papers on the subject published during the 

 last ten years. I have therefore given some of the principal 

 characteristics of the groups, following as authorities, — 1st, the 

 original memoir of M. MontmolKn, on the cretaceous deposit of 

 Neufchatel, from whence the term " Neocomien " has been de- 

 rived ; 2dly, that of M. Leymerie on the department of the Aube 

 in France, accompanied by a series of plates ; 3dly, M. Von Roemer's 

 elaborate work, on the fossils of the chalk formation in the 

 North of Germany ; 4thly, the account given in M. Dubois de 

 Montpereux's work on the Crimea, of the cretaceous series in that 

 region. 



The deposit since called " Neocomien " on the Continent was first 

 described by M. Auguste de MontmoUin, in a paper published in 

 1835. * The author states that he first learned at Paris in 1828 

 that fossils collected by him in the vicinity of Neufchatel belonged 

 to the lower part of the chalk formation, " the green-sand," al- 

 though previously considered as a part of the Jura formation. The 

 term " Neocomien " was applied to these strata by M. Thurmann, 

 and subsequently recognised by M. de MontmoUin, who had pre- 

 viously designated his discovery merely as the " Terrain cretace de 

 Neufchatel." 



The strata described by M, De MontmoUin were unconnected 

 with any superior groups ; but M. Dubois subsequently discovered 

 at SouaiUon, traces of green-sand above the yellow limestone. 

 The list of fossils from Neufchatel was unaccompanied by plates ; 

 and it was not till those of M. Leymerie appeared, that any figured 

 Neocomian fossils were known in this country, although many of 



* Mem. de la Societe de Neufchatel, vol. i. p. 47. 



