56 STRATA OF TILGATE FOREST. 



presume to attempt an explanation of the phenomena they exhibit, but 

 conclude with a brief recapitulation of the facts which this investigation 

 appears to have established. 



1. The country in the envu-ons of Tilgate forest is composed of various 

 beds of limestone and sandstone, covered with a layer of diluvial detritus ; 

 their total thickness being about thirty feet. 



2. These deposits (so far as our knowledge extends) are of incon- 

 siderable extent, occupying a district not exceeding fifteen square miles. 



3. They contain the remains of oviparous quadrupeds and fishes; 

 fresh water ? and marine shells ; and numerous vegetables. 



4. Of these remains, a few only are sufiiciently entire to point out the 

 characters of the originals, the most considerable portion being reduced to 

 fragments, and rounded by attrition ; and all more or less broken and in- 

 discriminately mixed together. 



5. The more perfect examples are referable to the following animals 

 and vegetables : viz. 



An animal of the lizard tribe, of gigantic magnitude. 



Other species of lacertae, the characters of which have not been satis- 

 factorily determined. 



Three species of turtle, two of which are marine, and the third, a fresh 

 water species ; of the former, one is related to Testudo mydas, and the 

 other to T. imbricata. The fresh water species resembles the fossil turtle 

 of the Paris basin. 



Two kinds of fishes related to recent species, at present inhabitants of 

 our seas, (if not the same ?) viz. Squalus miistelus, and Anarhicas lupus. 



Several species of bivalve and univalve shell-fish; the former be- 

 longing to the genera mya and unio ; the latter to the genera vivipara ? 

 or paludina ? consisting of the same species as the shells of the Purbeck 

 limestone. 



The vegetables resemble in their general characters, certain plants 

 peculiar to tropical regions, namely, the EuphorbicB and Dicksonia ; some 

 of them are evidently the remains of palms and gigantic reeds ; and one 

 species is very similar to the common Carew of our rivers. 



