Jan. 9, 1856.] sorby — tertiaries of the isle of wight. 137 



brought to light by Mr. Godwin- Austen to an outer zone of Wealden 

 drift, in addition to those which he had already described as manthng 

 round the nucleus of the Weald ; the corresponding parts of this 

 zone, he thinks, are to be found in the valley of the Thames, and 

 perhaps yet to be discovered amongst the Greywethers and other 

 relics of the Tertiaries found on the chalk-country of Hampshire and 

 Wilts. The above-mentioned zone is regarded by the author as the 

 remains of the boulder-deposit which is spread over the tertiary 

 countries of this and the adjoining parts of the North of Europe, 

 before their continuity was disturbed by the upheaval of the great 

 anticlinal of the South of England. 



The country immediately under review, Mr. Martin regards as a 

 sectional part of this great anticlinal, and not to be considered apart 

 from the wide geological area to which it belongs. He considers 

 that its phaenomena of arrangement and drift belong to the epoch of 

 that upheaval, and betoken the agencies of powerful diluvial cur- 

 rents, set in motion and contemporaneously assisted by the disloca- 

 tions known to abound in this part of our island ; and without the 

 aid of which no satisfactory conclusion, in the author's opinion, can 

 be deduced respecting the drifts and the other phsenomena of the 

 denudations and surface-changes here exhibited.] 



January 9, 1856. 



H. P. Hakewill, Esq., was elected a Fellow. 



The following Communications were read : — 



1. On the Physical Geography of the Tertiary Estuary of 

 the Isle of Wight. By H. C. Sorby, Esq., F.G.S. 



[This Paper has been withdrawn by permission of the Council.] 



(Abstract.) 



In this paper were first described the currents due to the action of 

 the tide and stranding surface-waves in an estuary, and the 

 relations between them and the physical geography of the limiting 

 shores. These are such, that, if the direction and character of 

 the currents were known, the physical geography of the area 

 might be inferred within certain limits. After this were explained 

 the various structures produced by currents in strata formed 

 under their influence, from which the direction, velocity, cha- 

 racter, and depth of the currents can be ascertained. This was 

 followed by an account of the directions and other peculiarities of 

 the currents indicated in the various sandy and other strata of the 

 tertiary formations at numerous localities in the district under con- 

 sideration. From thence the author obtains data from which many 

 peculiarities in the physical geography of the coast-lines of the ter- 

 tiary land and sea in the area now occupied by Hampshire and the 

 Isle of Wight can be deduced. The chief of these characters are 



