1<S72.] METER WEALDEX AND ''' PtTKFIELD FOEMATION." 249 



confined to the Wealden area, and that the highest or " Folkstone 

 beds" of the Neocomian series alone extend beyond such area. 

 There is, therefore, little room for doubt that the rivers of the later 

 Wealden jjeriod were rivers still after its close — that as at one time 

 they poured their waters into the great Wealden basin, so at a later 

 time they still flowed on into the Neocomian sea. The drainage- 

 area of the adjacent lands remained well nigh the same ; the rivers 

 were still almost the same ; their catchment-basin had changed 

 meantime from Wealden to Neocomiau. 



The traces of terrestrial vegetation which are of such compara- 

 tively frequent occurrence in the English Neocomian strata have 

 been always attributed to river-action. Such remains occur in many 

 localities and on various horizons in the Lower Greensand, but are 

 most abundant towards the middle and upper portions of the forma- 

 tion. I have seen fragments of drift wood in the Perna-hed in 

 Surrey ; and it has been recorded from Atherfield ; but it is rare at so 

 low a level. Coniferous wood occurs, according to Mantell, in the 

 " Cracker's rock " of the Isle of Wight ; it is common in the Kentish 

 rag of Hythe and Maidstone, and is yet more abundant near the base 

 of the Folkestone beds at Shanklin in the Isle of Wight and at Nut- 

 field in Surrey. Fossil resin occurs at Shanklin, and has been found 

 by Mr. Simms in Kent on about the same horizon — namely, near the 

 base of the Folkestone-beds. Leaflets and smaller fragments of a 

 Wealden fern, the Lonchopteris Mantelli, have been found throughout 

 nearly the entire formation*, but are apparently most abundant at 

 Shanklin. 



The occurrence of remains of Iguanodon Mantelli and of freshwater 

 turtles in the Kentish rag of Maidstone is too well known to need 

 remark, except as a proof of the continuance of river- action. The 

 last evidence I shall offer on this point relates to the occurrence of 

 remains of the great Wealden reptile at a yet higher level than the 

 Kentish rag. From information obtained from quarrymen I had 

 long suspected the presence of bones of the Iguanodon in the Bar- 

 gate stone of Surrey, and I was last year fortunate enough to find 

 the unworn tooth of an Iguanodon in the upper beds of the Bargate 

 stone near Guildford. 



Taken broadly, therefore, and without reference to special periods, 

 I believe that the same land poured its waters into the Neocomian 

 as previously into the Purbeck-Wealden basin of the south-east of 

 England — that such rivers were several in number, and flowed per- 

 haps at once from Central and Western France and from the old and 

 newer lands of Western England. 



3. I come now to what is after all the really important point in 

 this paper ; it is one on which, as a young geologist, I must ask the 

 forbearance of this Society, and especially of those geologists from 

 whose expressed opinion I am forced to differ. I refer to the relation 

 of the so-called " Punfield Formation " of Mr. Judd to the Neocomian 

 and Wealden strata of the south-east of England. 



At the time the paper on the " Punfield formation " was read. 

 * Mem. Geol. Survey, " Isle of Wight " (1862), p. 1.3. 

 VOL. XXVIII. — PART I. T 



