228 Miss M. E. J. Chandler— The H or die Marine Bed. 



Bed 31 . Pale greenish clay with sands, sands pre- 

 dominating. Few fossils near the top. 

 Alternating laminated purplish-grey 

 clay and sands with JJnio, Melania, 

 PaUidina . . . . . 7 ft. 10 in. 



I have read and re-read their paper carefully, and certain passages 

 in it can only be regarded as a confession that the Marine bed had 

 never been seen in the position here indicated, though for the 

 reason given above they placed it there. For the same reason they 

 also contradicted the Marchioness of Hastings' statements, asserting 

 that she had inverted the order of her beds so that her number 2 

 (marine) should come above her number 1 (Lirrmaea marl in the 

 west, white sand in the east), and they considered it impossible that 

 6-8 feet of grey sand could occur above the marine bed as she had 

 observed. 



Shortly afterwards Elwes drew attention to work undertaken by 

 himself and Keeping, in the hope of settling the disputed points (8). 

 A pit was dug to the west of Paddy's Gap, and the succession seen 

 therein was as follows : — 

 Soil, 1 foot. 

 Gravel, 25| feet. 

 Whitish sand, \-lh feet. 

 Marine bed, 1-1-| feet. 



Light bluish-green clayey sand vvith Paludina and Unio. 

 This would give the Marine bed the same sort of position in the 

 sequence as shown on p. 224, column 2, i.e. above the Unio bed, and 

 within the sandy bed, which is the topmost horizon of the easterly 

 development of the Freshwater series. 



The great stumbling-block has evidently been the failure to 

 appreciate the variability of these freshwater strata when traced 

 laterally ; making due allowance for this, the apparently discordant 

 records can easily be explained. The changes that occur may be 

 merely a question of thickness, or, according to the position in the 

 cliff, they may concern the general character of the beds. In proof 

 of this one has only to look at the three distinct vertical sections on 

 p. 224, which were taken at intervals through the same beds within 

 a space of less than half-a mile. Of these sections that in the middle 

 column agrees essentially with Elwes' and Keeping's trial hole 

 section, and with the easterly section with white sands implied by 

 the Marchioness ; that in the first column agrees with the 

 Marchioness's westerly section, and with the one given by Tawney 

 and Keeping, omitting the Marine bed which had never actually 

 been seen in that position. 



With regard to the stratigraphical significance of the Marine bed, 

 the field evidence strongly supports the view advocated by Judd 

 when the subject was under discussion in 1883 (7). The character of 

 the deposits is all in favour of their being formed as pockets in 

 brackish water, due to temporary incursions of the sea. The massed, 



