ISOl.] FISHER BUACKLE811AM BEDS. 83 



is I'cached, full of sliolLs. Siugle valves of Can/itd plaiiicosta arc 

 common. There are iiunierous small CentJiia in this hed, of several 

 speeies. Fasus imhifjonus is also not uncommon, as also PseudoUva 

 cvalis. ITie bed is about 8 or 10 inches thick. Beneath it we come 

 upon very stiii' lead-coloiu'ed clay, in which Corhula ^>/.syt»?, soon be- 

 gins to make its appearance ; and, after passing* through about 4 feet 

 of this clay, we reach a sandj- layer, of a somewhat greenish tint. 

 In tliis many good specimens are to be found, especially of Pleiwo- 

 toma aUeniiata, The clay then becomes less sandy, and is crowded 

 with Corhula pisum, other fossils occurring sparingly for about 2| 

 feet. We tlien reach a bed of dark sand with shells, chiefly (but by 

 no means all) broken. There are a large number of single valves 

 of CanVita phin'uosta at this level; and, when these are passed, an- 

 other layer of shells, mostly broken, is usually found, containing seve- 

 ral rare species, and among them many specimens of Voluta liorrida, 

 a species known only by a single broken specimen fi'om Bracklesham 

 before I found it at this place. Hard grey clay, with intermittent 

 layers of CorbuJa', and but few other species, succeed this bed. 



I consider the Brook Bed to be on the horizon of xiv. (d). It is 

 the bed most constant in its character of any, and differs so little at 

 White Chtf Bay (where, however, it is difficult to find, as it lies in 

 a vertical position at the bottom of a small streamlet), Bracklesham 

 Bay, Stubbington, and Brook, that it affords a very satisfactory 

 presumption of its being quite possible to divide the Bracklesham 

 series into successive beds, each recognizable by its lithological cha- 

 racters, position, and fossil contents. 



The " Brook Bed " crops out in the ditch by the side of Sir 

 F. Pollock's Wood, in Canterton Lane ; and it may be seen there, as 

 well as in Shepherd's Gutter, that it is soon succeeded by sands, 

 which are no doubt the sands belonging to the horizon of ix. 



Western Range of the Bracklesham Beds. Pooh and Corfe. — I have 

 thus described the character and sequence of the Bracklesham Beds 

 as they occur at intervals throughout the eastern and northern parts 

 of the Isle of Wight Basin. I have now to speak of their western 

 development near Poole, at Alum Bay, and at High Cliff. There is 

 a specimen in the Museum at Dorchester, which I have been credi- 

 bly informed came from a sand-pit at Lytchett, near Poole. It is a 

 concretion of ferruginous sand, formed upon a mass of CarditcE 

 jtlanirostrf and Turritelloi (probably T. imhricataricE), the casts only 

 remaining. This is an interesting specimen, because it shows that 

 the sea of the Jiracklesham period was tenanted by such fonns very 

 near the district of Poole and Bournemouth, where the only remains 

 hitherto observed have been those of vegetaliles and insects. I 

 have, however, seen a small round Oyster from Furzeybrook clay- 

 pit, near Corfe, — the only instance on record, as I believe, of a marine 

 shell from these Corfe Beds *. 



♦ T^rt'o palm-lfAvcft arc not uncoiTiinoii at Kur/o} brook, wliicli 8(x;m8 to 

 show tliat a j<ubtro]»i(5il climat** wa.n Hharcil in by Ibe land a« well an hy the 

 ocean, during the liracklfsharn period. A s[)ccuucn of thcBc puhna wuh ex- 

 hibited when the paper waa read. 



(i 2 



