FORMATIONS ABOVE THE CHALK. 247 



XIV. 

 § III. FORMATIONS ABOVE THE CHALK. 



The flat maritime district, extending on the south side of the Downs, 

 from Emsworth and Bracklesham, to Brighton, is composed of various 

 deposits of clay, sand, and brick-earth, reposing upon the chalk. Accu- 

 mulations of similar materials, enclosing waterworn blocks of sandstone, 

 and boulders of a coarse, ferruginous breccia, occur also at Falmer, Lewes 

 Piddinghoe, Newhaven, and Chimpting castle. These are evidently the 

 ruins of strata that formerly existed above the chalk, and were probably 

 of considerable thickness, extent, and variety. 



The class of deposits to which these belong, were but imperfectly 

 known, till the researches of M. M. Cuvier, and Brongniart, in the 

 environs of Paris. The publication of their masterly deUneation of the 

 Geographle Mineralogique, of that district, excited universal attention, 

 and attached to the investigation of these strata a high degree of interest 

 and importance. The inquiry was pursued with equal zeal and success, 

 in our own country, by Mr. Webster, who discovered in London, Hamp- 

 shire, and the Isle of Wight, a series of beds, corresponding in their cha- 

 racters, and geological position, with those of the neighbourhood of Paris, 

 Insular portions of these strata have subsequently been noticed in 

 numerous localities of the English chalk, and the facts already known, 

 are sufficient to warrant the conclusion, that they were formerly as 

 extensive in this island, as on the continent. 



To enable geologists to identify the English formations with those of 

 other countries. Professor Buckland has constructed a tabular arrangement, 

 which is admirably adapted to facilitate the acquirement of a correct 



