Dr. FiTTON on the Strata below the Chalk, 169 



Beds of the Group {III. c.) composing the Ledge on the Shore beneath St. Leonard's. 



1. Hard, subcalcareous, greenish grit, full of fossils; chiefly Cyclades, with Paludinae, I ^^ 



and some large Uniones J 2 



A thick and nearly continuous stratum, very like the stone of HolUngton about 

 2- miles north-west from Hastings ; its structure, however, like that of the 

 White rock, is distinctly concretional. The top of the concretions, when ex- 

 posed and washed by the sea, exhibits beautifully the minute stratification of 

 the original sand ; and the globular masses on the underside project into the 

 sand (2.) below. The stone is traversed nearly at right angles by veins of cal- 

 careous spar, and includes portions of trees, converted into lignite. It is asso- 

 ciated also with patches of a looser conglomerate, consisting chiefly of rounded 

 grains of whitish, nearly opake, quartz, including the teeth, scales, and bones of 

 fishes, and of a species of Trionyx ?. The strike of this]^stratum is about 10° 

 south of east, and the dip towards the west of south, at an angle of about 11°. 



2. Yellowish sand-rock, abounding in impressions of Cyclades, and also resembling 1 



part oi HolUngton group J 



3. A band of slaty argillaceous iron ore 3 



4. Slaty clay, with numerous shells, chiefly Cyclades and Cypris 9 



5. Continuous band of iron ore ; like 3, above _0 2 



Total about » 8 



6. Slaty clay with Cyclades and Cypris 



III. d. — The group last mentioned must be continuous with that in the height to the westward, 

 although the connexion is at present concealed; for a line from the point where the grit rises from 

 the shore, would reach the base of the vertical cliff near the church*, — where slaty clay, with grit 

 and sandrock, occupy a thickness, according to the quarrymen, of more than 70 feet. The same 

 strata then rise gradually westward, and disappear about 700 paces west of the church. Several 

 quarries, concealed from below by a terrace-like projection, have been opened for the extraction of 

 the grit near the top of these western heights : and a hard sparry conglomerate, immediately 

 beneath the more uniform stone, has afforded many of the Tilgate fossils ; a large collection of 

 which, presented to the Geological Society by Mr. Woodbine Parish, includes specimens of bones 

 and teeth of the Iguknodon, scales and other remains of Lepisosteus, and shells of the genera Palu- 

 dina and Cyclas in profuse abundance. The cliff here may be about 90 feet in height, and its 

 base about 25 feet above low-water mark. 



List of Beds composing the Group {III, d.) at the Church, St. Leonard's. 



Ft. In. Ft. In. 



1 . Soft sand-rock at the top of the hill (visible) 6 



2. Greenish grey sand 2 



* The dip, however, of the strata in this cliff, is not to the south, like that of the ledge under 

 the Marina, but northwards; so that it is not impossible that there may be here some local 

 derangement, though I saw no indications of it on the shore. I had, however, an opportunity, in 

 an early stage of the improvements at St. Leonard's, of seeing what may have been a fault, in 

 the rising ground on the west of the Assembly Rooms, which was then opened in preparing the 

 foundations of some houses. The surface thus exposed was nearly at right angles to the coast, 

 and consisted of sand-rock, over greenish clay or Fuller's earth, in regular strata, dipping north, 

 about 20° east : while immediately without, and separated by a distinct vertical line or crack, 

 was a mass of clay ; — which, however, may have been brought into that situation by subsidence, as 

 the place is close to the shore. 



VOL. IV. SECOND SERIES. Z 



