386 Reports and Proceedings. 



to record these miglity events. We prefer, therefore, to leave these 

 questions to the antiquary and ethnologist, who, as well as the geolo- 

 gists, will find in Mr. Catlin a shrewd and very original writer and 

 observer, — fearless and severe in his criticisms, but giving abundant 

 opportunity to those who please to do so to criticise him in return. 



lasi^OE-TS jLisTX) i=ieocEE3Dii^rc3-s. 



Geological Society of London. — I. June 8th, 1870. Joseph 

 Prestwich, Esq., F.E.S., President, in the Chair. 1. "On the Super- 

 ficial Deposits of the South of Hampshire and the Isle of Wight." 

 By Thomas Codrington, Esq., F.Gr.S. 



This paper treated of the gravel deposits covering the Tertiary 

 strata between Portsmouth and Poole, and of the Isle of Wight, 



The strikingly tabular character of the surface is best seen on the 

 east of the Avon, where from the coast for more than twenty miles 

 inland a gravel-covered plain can be followed, rising gradually from 

 80 feet to 420 feet above the sea, at the rate of about 20 feet per 

 mile. The high plains of the New Forest, to the eye perfectly level, 

 and indented by deep valleys, are portions of this table-land. The 

 plateau between the Bournemouth Cliffs and the Valley of the Stour, 

 and detached gravel-capped hills further inland, are the remnants of 

 a similar table-land on the west of the Avon, while eastwards the 

 same character prevails up to Southampton Water. Sections parallel 

 with the coast show the level nature of the country, broken only by 

 well-defined river-valleys. On the east of Southampton Water a 

 similar tabular surface, sloping at a steeper angle towards the 

 shore-line, and cut through by the valleys of the Itchen, Hamble, 

 and Titchfield rivers, remains ; and in the Isle of Wight the gravels 

 capping the flat-topped Tertiary hiUs coincide with a corresponding 

 plain sloping northwards. 



The gravel covering these table-lands is composed chiefly of sub- 

 angular chalk-flints, with a varying proportion of Tertiary pebbles. 

 Sarsen stone blocks are found everywhere, and on Poole Heath 

 granitic pebbles ; and in the gravel of Portsea large boulders of 

 granitic and palaeozoic rocks are met with. In the Isle of Wight, 

 ehert from the Upper Greensand and materials from the Lower 

 Cretaceous beds also occur. The colour of the gravel is generally 

 red ; and the origin of the white gravel, which often overlies the 

 red, is to be ascribed to the bleacHng action of vegetable matter. 

 Brick-earth is generally associated with the gravel at all levels but 

 the highest; but the contorted appearances attributed to glacial 

 action only occur at low levels. 



No organic remains have been found in the gravel covering the 



however, only recently been brought to light, and are not the sources whence Mr. 

 Catlin obtained his information. Mr. L. Harper, Professor of Geology, U.S.A., in 

 a letter to the Editor of the " Echo du Parlement," adduced a fact in confirmation of 

 Mr. Catlin's theory, viz. : that a subterranean outlet of the Great Salt Lake has been 

 discovered at Corinne, in the territory of Utah, U.S., which he thinks may largely 

 contribute to the Gulf Stream. 



