1852.] TRIMMER ON THE SOILS OF KENT. 273 



character, except in the neighbourhood of Villa Nueva, where some 

 very large deposits of tertiary fossils are found, with thick beds full 

 of minute Foraminifera, without any Nummulites. Mixed with these 

 are found some fossils which have been considered as cretaceous, 

 and have been met with in the Pyrenees. Beyond Villa Nueva, 

 close to the coast, the ridge is but a few feet high, but as it approaches 

 Tarragona it rises in height, and tertiary fossils of a much later 

 period are abundant in it. To the north-west of Villa Franca there 

 are several ridges of limited extent, of similar character to those de- 

 scribed as occurring north of the Llobregat, except that the fossils 

 are rare ; but as a few Nummulites are found in them, their relative 

 age is determined. One of these ridges extends to Tarragona, where 

 it rises to some height, and continues several miles westward. The 

 upper part of these hills is covered near the coast by numerous 

 fossils of a recent period. Underneath these beds are found some 

 thin strata, containing a very few Nummulites-, and these tertiary 

 beds overlie a mass of calcareous rock which contains a very few 

 Belemnites and small Ammonites of a cretaceous character, the only 

 specimens belonging to this period which I have observed in the whole 

 Province of Catalonia. The latter rock is most distinct in the city of 

 Tarragona, where, however, it does not rise to the height of more than 

 20 feet, and runs along the coast to the south-west in isolated hills of 

 the same height. A short distance to the south-west of Tarragona, 

 near Reus, there is another ridge of much greater elevation, with a 

 granite base, overlaid by tertiary deposits of considerable variety, and 

 extending to within a few miles of the Ebro. 



May 19, 1852. 

 The following communications were read : — 



1 . On the Origin of the Soils which cover the Chalk of Kent. 

 By Joshua Trimmer, Esq., F.G.S. 



Part II.* 



In a Report on the Agricultural Geology of England and Wales, 

 lately published in the * Journal of the Royal Agricultural Society of 

 England,' I have collected, from the Reports to the Board of Agri- 

 culture and other agricultural authorities, evidence of the existence 

 of a great variety of soils, calcareous as well as non-calcareous, on the 

 surface of the Chalk in its range through England. It is thus proved 

 by the testimony of a number of independent observers, that cal- 

 careous soils are the exception, and are confined to certain elevations 

 and forms of surface. 



I have also, in a recent communication to this Society, " On the 



* The communication which forms Part I. of these Notices of the Superficial 

 Geology of the S.E. of England was read November 20, 1850. See Quart. Journ. 

 Geol. Soc. vol. vii. p. 31. 



