1865.] 



WHITAKEB— ISLE OP WIGHT CHALK. 



401 



on as belonging to the Upper Greensand ; for it seems to me to be 

 tbe representative of the clayey greensand that forms the upper part 

 of the latter formation in Surrey, Berkshire, Oxfordshire, Bucking- 

 hamshire, (fee. *; and in taking this view I follow the late Professor 

 E. Forbes and Captain Ibbetson f, although the last-named observer 

 has also spoken of the Chloritic Marl as separating the Chalk-marl 

 from the Upper Greensand, as if he doubted to which formation to 

 refer it, notwithstanding that in the same paper he correlates it 

 with the greensand of Surrey X- 



I shall not treat of each division of the Chalk separately, but will 

 give the sections in order from the west eastwards. 



From the Needles to beyond Freshwater Bay only the top mem- 

 ber of the Chalk is present, the rest having been worn away along 

 the shore. The parallel layers of flint are very frequent, many 

 quite continuous, some of a peculiar brown or pinkish tint, and all 

 more or less broken up. There are also thin yellowish beds in the 

 Chalk, which is rather hard, and weathers to a rough surface on the 

 face of the cliffs. 



At Sun Comer, the southern horn of Scratchall's Bay, there is a bed 

 of some thickness, in which the layers of flint are so close together 

 that they form nearly as much of the rock as the chalk itself. I 

 could not examine this, as the tide was up when I was there. It 

 is shown in fig. 1, in which the black lines represent the layers of 



Fig. 1. — ScratcJialVs Bay (looTciyig soutJiwards). 

 (From a photograph.) 



* Geological Survey Memoirs on Sheet 13, p. 18, and on Sheet 7, p. 4. 



t Brit. Assoc. Report, 1 844, Trans, of Sections, p. 43. Mr. Bristow tells me, 

 however, that Prof. Forbes afterwards classed the Chloritic Marl with the Chalk. 



I Ibid. 1848, Trans, of Sections, p. 69. In tliis paper there is a long list of 

 the places where th^ Chloritic Marl may be seen. 



