IRON SAND FORMATION. 25 



many of its beds were formerly worked for the purpose of obtaining the 

 ore of that metal. 



The texture of the sandstones is evidently mechanical, and they often 

 form coarse-grained conglomerates, consisting of quartzose pebbles of 

 various sizes, imbedded in a ferrugino-siliceous cement *. 



The Forest ridge, and a considerable portion of the Weald, consist of 

 this deposit, which rises from beneath the Weald clay, and occupies the 

 north-eastern division of the county. It forms a range of hills which 

 run in a W. N.W. direction from Hastings to near Horsham, having a 

 soil either of sandy loam upon grit stone, or of black vegetable earth 

 upon clay or marl. Its principal elevations have been already mentioned. 

 A great proportion of these hills is but little better than barren sand, of 

 which St. Leonard's and Ashdown forests are computed to contain nearly 

 thirty thousand acres. The sterility of this extensive tract is ascribed 

 to the ferruginous impregnation of the soil from the beds of iron- 

 stone. 



On the coast, the ironstone is first seen near Bexhill, rising from 

 beneath the marsh land of Pevensey Levels ; from whence it forms a line 

 of cliffs that extends to Hastings, and terminates near Winchelsea. 



We shall proceed to notice a few localities of this deposit, in the 

 south-eastern part of the county. 



At Little Horsted, five miles N. N.E. from Lewes, the iron sand first 

 appears; it is seen. immediately below the turf on the brow of a gentle 

 elevation near the forty-fifth mile-stone; and forms the hill on which 

 Horsted church, and the seat of Ewan Law, Esq. are situate. On the 

 east side of the road, the strata appear in the following succession, dipping 

 towards the south-west. 



1. Sand-stone of a ferruginous colour. 



* Extracted from a Memoir on the Iron Sand, by the Rev. W. D. Conybeare, F.R.S. 

 pubhshed in the new edition of Phillips'' Outlines of Geology, 1822. This interesting little 

 A olume is certainly one of the most valuable works on geology that has appeared in this, 

 or any other country. It contains a complete epitome of all that is at present known 

 concerning the geological structure of the British islands ; and abounds with the most useful 

 information. 



