﻿MURCHISON FLINT DRIFT OF S.E. ENGLAND. 365 



is the condition of the breccia in the cliffs east of Brighton, and the 

 animal-remains occasionally found in it are chiefly the teeth of the 



Fig. 7. — Diagram showing the general structure and composition of 

 the Brighton Breccia or Combe Rock, and its relations to the 

 Chalk and the ancient and recent Sea-beaches. 

 s. n 



a. Alluvial soil 



x. Upper flint drift. 



x'. Irregular courses of sand and blocks of grey-wether-sandstone. 



x". Lower drift ; in parts a very coarse chalk-rubble with some flints, in parts fine laminae of 

 sand and chalk-rubble. 



b. Old raised beach, with rounded pebbles. 



c. Chalk with flints. 



o. Present sea-beach and shingle-slope. 



o'. Chalk exposed at low water, with pebbles accumulated around large fragments of chalk, 

 as in the old beach, b. 



Fossil bones are found at intervals in x, x\ and x". 



Horse, Stag, and Mammoth, and such of the harder bones as were 

 capable of resisting the violent commotion which obviously attended 



beach. Instead of being made tip of large subangular fragments of chalk, as in 

 some places, it is there composed of finely levigated alternations of yellowish 

 sandy and whitish chalky materials, which for a short space are horizontally stra- 

 tified, although the imbedded flints are angular and unrolled. A little further 

 eastward these fine yellow layers are observed to pass (in the very same horizon, 

 or immediately over the raised beach) into a very coarse white rubble, containing 

 large fragments of chalk, and free from all sand or clay. In other parts of the 

 cliff, irregular layers of sandy and loamy detritus, w r ith some flints, have assumed 

 fantastic forms, resembling those of the contorted and broken drift of the Norfolk 

 coast. Whilst it is specially to the upper and unbedded portion of these loose 

 materials, whether composed of flints or clay and sands with flints, that my ob- 

 servations apply, I must say, that, after examining many sections in a variety of 

 districts, I cannot see by what means this drift can be separated into distinct 

 ages. The organic remains which it contains are of the same species in all por- 

 tions of the deposit, and, if we seek to distinguish the upper from the lower mem- 

 ber by physical tests, we meet with the following result. The apparent separation 

 visible in one place is not only evanescent in another, but the parts, supposed to 

 be distinct, inosculate with and graduate into each other. In one locality the clay 

 or brick-earth overlies all the flints, in another it ramifies through them, and is 

 distributed with patches of sand in the most capricious manner. In addition to 

 the numerous sections mentioned in the text, I may be permitted to state, that 

 excellent examples of this irregular distribution are exposed on the sides of the 

 VOL. VII. PART I. 2D 



