1849.] WESTON ON THE GEOLOGY OF RIDGWAY. 317 



2. Further Observations on the Geology of Ridgway near Wey- 

 mouth. By Charles H. Weston, Esq., B.A., F.G.S. 



[Abstract.^ 



In his former paper on this subject* Mr. Weston endeavoured to 

 show the existence of the Hastings sand at Ridgway. He has since 

 visited the various sections of the Wealden between Hastings and 

 Lulworth, and then re-examined the railway cutting at Ridgway, and 

 the result has been to confirm his former views. He finds that the 

 variegated clays, loams and sands exhibited in the latter locality are 

 by no means local, but occur also in Kent, in the south of Sussex, in 

 the Isle of AVight and in Dorset ; and he has recently observed them 

 on the Brighton and London Railway near Balcombe. In Sussex 

 these variegated clays form a very subordinate part of the formation, 

 but are more developed in the counties to the west. 



In his concise but masterly ' Geological Sketch of the Vicinity of 

 Hastings,' Dr. Fitton notices the " greenish and purplish variegated 

 clay" and sand visible at Leaness Point, between Hastings and Win- 

 chelsea. They lie beneath a stratum which Mr. Webster describes 

 as a sandstone intersected by numerous veins of argillaceous iron ore, 

 and rest on a dark-coloured shale also containing several layers of 

 rich iron ore, formerly much worked in Sussex. These lowest shales 

 are placed by Dr. Mantell in the upper part of the Ashburnham 

 beds. Dr. Fitton also points out the anticlinal axis passing from 

 the shore near Leaness through the highest point of Fairlight Down 

 to Battle, the strata dipping away from it on both sides. 



Mr. Weston has himself found similar ferruginous and variegated 

 clays and sands in a hill beyond Ham Street on the Rye and Ashford 

 Railway, and near Hastings at Bopeep, west of St. Leonard's, and at 

 Bexhill. He next found them at Sandown Bay in the Isle of Wight, 

 and also between Atherfield and Afton Downs. The clays contain 

 no fossils but the Cypris valdensis and Paludina in some associated 

 beds. 



" The next appearance of the Hastings sand is at Swanage Bay 

 in Dorset, emerging from under the very steep escarpment of Ballard 

 Downs. The entire group was in this place more varied, and con- 

 sisted of a greater number of alternations of sands and clays than I 

 found in the Isle of Wight. It appeared in consequence to combine 

 in miniature the more extensively-developed arenaceous deposits of 

 Hastings and the almost exclusive argillaceous strata of the south- 

 west coast of the Isle of Wight. 



" The variegated clays are identical with those of the latter and of 

 Ridgway. I could however discover no fossils in them. 



** The Chalk Downs (of which Ballard Down forms the south- 

 eastern extremity) run across the Isle of Purbeck and terminate in 

 the fine bluff cliff of Purbeck Hill on the east of Lulworth. The 

 sections below Purbeck Hill are those of Worbarrow Bay on the east 



* Quart. Geol. Journ. vol. iv. p. 245. 



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