Ch. XX.] MAMMIFEROXJS REMAINS ISLE OF WIGHT. 281 



origin. There are undoubtedly certain intercalated strata, both 

 in the Isle of Wight and coast of Hampshire, marked by a 

 slight intermixture of marine and fresh-water shells, sufficient 

 to imply a temporary return of the sea, before and after which 

 the waters of a lake, or rather, perhaps, some large river, pre- 

 vailed *. The united thickness of the fresh-water and inter- 

 calated upper marine beds, exposed in a vertical precipice in 

 Headen Hill, in the Isle of Wight, is about 400 feet, the 

 marine series appearing about half way up in the cliff. 



Eocene mammiferom remains. Very perfect remains of tor- 

 toises and the teeth of crocodiles have been procured from the 

 fresh- water strata, but a still more interesting discovery has 

 recently been made. The bones of mammalia corresponding 

 to those of the celebrated gypsum of Paris, have been disin- 

 terred at Binstead, near Hyde, in the Isle of Wight. In the 

 ancient quarries near this town a limestone, belonging to the 

 lower fresh- water formation, is worked for building. Solid 

 beds alternate with marls, wherein a tooth of an Anoplotherium, 

 and two teeth of the genus Palaeotherium, were found. These 

 remains were accompanied not only by several other fragments 

 of the bones of Pachydermata (chiefly in a rolled and injured 

 state), but also by the jaw of a new species of Ruminantia, 

 apparently closely allied to the genus Moschus f. Mr. T. Allan 

 of Edinburgh had several years before found the tooth of an 

 Anoplotherium at the same spot, and when we alluded to this 

 in our first volume J, we threw out some doubts as to the 

 authenticity of his specimen, stating at the same time, that in 

 the Binstead beds, if anywhere in our island, we should expect 

 such remains to be found. Although we carried our scepticism 

 too far, it has been attended with good results, for it induced 

 Mr. Pratt to visit Binstead, where he verified and extended the 

 discovery of Mr. Allan. 



* See Memoirs of Mr. Webster, Geol. Trans., vol. ii., First Series, vol. i. part i., 

 Second Series, and Englefield's Isle of Wight. Professor Sedgwick, Anil, of 

 Phil., 1822, and Lyell, Geol. Trans., vol. ii. Second Series. 



t Pratt, Proceedings of Geol. Soc., No. 18, p. 239. 



{ First Edition, p. 153. 



