Mr. S. V. Wood. 573 
Correspondence 
I am not aware that I ever held such an extraordinary view, I ask in 
what part of my letter this supposition is supposed to be contained, 
My reasoning is altogether based upon the mean thickness and 
superficial extent of the sedimentary strata of the earth, or otherwise 
their actual bulk, so the question as to whether Mr. Wallace has 
under or over-estimated the maximum thickness is quite immaterial. 
Your correspondent says in conclusion that he has ‘‘ never seen a 
single fact that tells against the view of the permanency of oceanic 
areas.” I feel that this statement of what he “cannot see” is con- 
elusive, and that further argument is useless. 
Nov. 3rd, 1883. T. Menuarp READE, 
MIDDLE HEADON AND MEADEND BEDS OF HORDWELL CLIFF. 
Srr,— What could have induced Mr. Keeping to charge my father 
with error, and with saying that a bed which he had described as 
underlying the Upper Freshwater only, underlay the Lower Fresh- 
water ? : 
One of the objects of my father’s paper was to correct antecedent 
errors, as to the extension of the Lower Freshwater into Barton Cliff 
(where Lyell had asserted that it occurred), and to show that the 
marine bed theretofore known only at Headon Hill, where it occurred 
between tne Upper and Lower Freshwater, and was then known 
as the ‘‘ Upper Marine” (now called the Middle Headon), but which 
had not been observed in Hordwell Cliff (and indeed had been ex- 
pressly stated by Lyell not to occur there), did occur there, viz. 
at the ravine near Milford, 10 to 12 feet above high-water mark ; 
and my father proceeded to describe it as occupying exactly the 
same position, relatively to the Upper and Lower Freshwater, that 
it did at Headon Hill, z.e. between the two, which is the position 
Mr. Keeping claims for it. é 
As the only bed which answered to Mr. Keeping’s version of my 
father’s description, viz. close to the beach and underlying all the 
Lower Freshwater, was the one which my father had described at 
Meadend, I naturally took him to mean this ; for he named no locality. 
“« Paddy’s Gap” is this ravine where my father described the then 
called “‘Upper Marine” as occurring, and overlying the Lower 
Freshwater, “(the remaining portion of the Cliff to the eastward 
being, he considered, more from position than from its organic con- 
tents, the Upper Freshwater ;” and from Mr. Elwes’ letter, it appears 
that he, Mr. Keeping, Mr. Dawkins, Mr. Willett, and Mr. Shore 
have found the bed exactly in the position my father assigned, both 
geologically and actually ; for even to the comparatively unimportant 
particular of its position, 10 to 12 feet above high-water mark, Mr. 
Elwes’s statement that it is in situ “15 feet above the shore” shows 
that my father was right, and that what he described was no slipped 
mass as Mr. Keeping asserted, and as Mr. Elwes, strangely enough, 
repeats. Instead therefore of these gentlemen having, as they think, 
proved my father’s error, they have demonstrated his accuracy in all 
respects. 
