IV. — Observations on some of the Strata between the Chalk and 

 the Oxford Oolite, in the South-east of England. 



By WILLIAM HENRY FITTON, M.D., F.R.S. P.G.S., &c. 



[Read June 15, 1827.] 



(1.) In a paper published in the Annals of Philosophy for November and 

 December 1824*^ I gave an account of the order and characters of the strata 

 which occur beneath the chalk on the coast of part of the Isle of Wight and 

 of Dorsetshire, and stated some reasons for supposing that a similar arrange- 

 ment would be found to exist in the interior of England. 



The principal objects of that paper were; First, to distinguish as a separate 

 group, the series of strata now called the Lower Green-sand ; — which had pre- 

 viously been confounded either with the beds containing green particles 

 immediately below the chalk, or with the sandy and ferruginous strata conspi- 

 cuously exhibited on the coast at Hastings, and then called " Iron-sand." 

 SeconiUi/, to indicate more clearly than had been done before, the peculiar 

 characters of the group, which succeeds in a descending order to that just 

 mentioned, and is remarkably distinguished by its fossils from the strata imme- 

 diately in apposition with it, both above and below. For this latter group, 

 which includes the Weald clay, the sand of Hastings, and the Purbeck lime- 

 stone, and is well entitled to a separate denomination, I have adopted the name 

 of '' Wealden," proposed by Mr. Martin, in his valuable memoir on the West 

 of Sussexf. 



(2.) The objects of the inquiries which have produced the following pages 

 were, to compare some portions of the series of strata between the chalk and 

 the Oxford oolite, in different parts of the South-east of England ; to ascer- 

 tain the existence of the Wealden in the interior; and, if possible, to deter- 

 mine its boundaries. 



* Annals of Philosophy ; New Series, 1824, vol. viii, pp. 365, 458, &c. 

 I " Memoir on a Part of Western Sussex": 4to, London, 1828. 



