462 Morris — Ferruginous Sands of Buckinghamshire. 



Seven Oaks, Maidstone/ Boughton, and near Ashford, etc. The 

 coast line from Hythe to beyond Folkstone harbour, exposing, as is 

 weM known, a fine section of the Lower Green sand series.^ 



From the foregoing brief remarks it will be seen that the Lower 

 Green-sand strata vary in their mineral characters, when traced over 

 the British area, thus the limestones of the eastern part of the 

 Wealden districts are wanting in the western part, as well as in the 

 Isle of Wight, where arenaceous and argillaceous beds predominate. 

 On this point Mr. Meyer and Dr. Fitton have made some sug- 

 gestive and valuable observations.^ So also on tracing them from 

 Dorset to Yorkshire, they chiefly consist of ferruginous sands, and 

 sandstones, which in Lincolnshire are intercalated by sandy calca- 

 reous beds, called ' greystone,' and still further north at Speeton, are 

 represented by argillaceous strata. Further, it may be observed 

 with regard to their position that, in Southern England, these beds 

 always directly overlie the Wealden heds, whilst as they trend from 

 Dorset to Yorkshire, they are found lying upon either the Purbeck, 

 Portland, Kimmeridge, Gale grit. Coral rag, or Oxford clay, some of 

 which from the evidence afforded by the boring moUusca, must have 

 remained for a period uncovered by the now overlying sands.* 

 That a certain amount of denudation took place prior to the deposi- 

 tion of the Lower Green-sand, in the northern area, is, I think, 

 evident,^ but that the Purbeck and Portland strata ever extended far 

 beyond their present limits is not so probable, as they may have 

 thinned out in that direction, a point to which I may again refer, 

 when treating of these formations as they occur in Bucks. 



nsroTiOES OIF DyniBDvnoiiaS- 



Beitish Association fob the Advancement oe Science. 

 Dundee, September 5th, 1867. — List of Papers read before the 

 Geological Section. (Section C.) President, Archibald Geikie, 

 F.E.S., etc. 

 Dr. Eobert Chambers — Notice of an " Esker " at St. Fort. 



1 From the quarries of this stone belonging to Mr. Bensted of Maidstone, the fine 

 specimen of Iguanodon Mmtelli, now in the British Museum, was obtained in 1834. 



2 Fitton, Geol. Trans, vol. iv. plate 8. 



3 C. J. A. Meyer, " On the Correlation of the Cretaceous Eocks of the South-east 

 and West of England," Geol. Mag. vol. iii. Jan. 1866; Fitton, " Comparative re- 

 marks on the Sections below the Chalk at Hythe, Kent, and Atherfield, Isle of 

 Wight, Geol. Journ. vol. i. p. 179, May, 1844. Dr. Fitton shews that the prominent 

 points of difference between the sections of the Kentish coast and the Isle of Wight, 

 are considerable variation in mineral composition, — the almost total absence of Lime- 

 stone at Atherfield, and the greater thickness of the Lower Green-sand at this latter 

 place (by 346 feet) than at Hythe. 



* Where the "Tourtia," or part equivalent of Lower Green-sand, in Belgium, 

 overlies the denuded surface of the contorted beds of Palaeozoic limestone, numerous 

 borings of mollusca may be seen, as at Montigny-sur-roc and other places. 



5 The former existence of the Upper Wealden strata, in the interior of England, is 

 rendered probable by the erosion of the Purbeck beds, in many places, where the 

 Lower Green-sand comes in contact with them. Fitton, Geol. Trans., vol. 4, p. 325. 

 See also Mr. Walker, An. Mag. Nat. Hist., August, 1867. 



