liv PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



grey syenite, serpentine and red jasper are found, and Mr. Carrick 

 Moore remarks, though serpentine occurs abundantly at the Bennan 

 Head, that that mass penetrates and alters sandstones newer than 

 the coal-measures. It might be hence inferred that in this locality 

 serpentine had been ejected at different periods. Indeed igneous 

 rocks seem to have been thrown out in this vicinity in no little 

 abundance and variety, and in tracing their connection with the sedi- 

 mentary deposits it becomes very desirable to study the different 

 dates at which they became intermingled. It may be expected that 

 while the igneous rock broke through existing deposits, altering the 

 latter when traversing them as dykes, or where the molten mass 

 may have overflowed them, yet that the superincumbent sedimentaiy 

 bed was deposited after such ejection of the igneous rock, which 

 thus at the same time appears to cut the beds of an association of 

 deposits, to which we may assign some given name, and yet is con- 

 temporaneous with the deposits taken generally. Indeed such facts 

 are sufficiently common. 



Dr. Gesner, in that spirit which marks the cultivator of science 

 for its own sake, finding that his views respecting the geological po- 

 sition of the gypsum of Nova Scotia, and which you will remember, 

 were different from those of Sir Charles Lyell, has informed us that 

 in a new work by him on the industrial resources of Nova Scotia he 

 gives his reasons for not further supporting his first impressions 

 on that head. He now agrees with Sir Charles Lyell that the gyp- 

 sum occurs with the limestone beneath the coal-measures. Although 

 we know of no good reason why sulphate of lime should not occur, as 

 well in the geological situation noticed, as in those with which we are 

 more familiar in western Europe, it is still very useful to have this 

 disputed point as regards a particular district settled. 



In his farther observations on the geology of Ridgway, near Wey- 

 mouth, Mr. Weston states that the variegated clays and sands which 

 he had noticed in that vicinity are not local, but to be traced in Kent, 

 the south of Sussex, in the Isle of Wight and in other parts of Dor- 

 setshire, and that they are exposed upon the Brighton and London 

 Railway, in the vicinity of Balcombe and within Tilgate Forest. In 

 Sussex these variegated beds are very subordinate, but become more 

 developed to the westward. Mr. Weston cites the notice of these 

 beds by Dr. Fitton in his * Geological Sketch of the vicinity of Hast- 

 ings.' He remarks that they occur beneath the sandstone, with iron- 

 ore, noticed by Mr. Webster, and rest upon the shale with round 

 masses of sandstone and layers of argillaceous iron-ore of the same 

 author. Referring to the \dew of Dr. Mantell, that this shale forms 

 the upper part of the Ashburnham beds of the Wealden series, Mr. 

 Weston places these variegated clays in the lowest part of the Worth 

 and Tilgate group, separating it from the Ashburnham beds. The 

 various colours of the clays he attributes to the different states of 

 oxidation of the iron in them. 



In this communication many details are given of the author's ob- 

 servations on the Hastings beds, equivalent to those of the Ridgway, 

 from Hythe, Kent, by Hastings, the Isle of Wight, Swanage Bay, 



