186 Dr. FiTTON on the Strata below the Chalk. 



succeeds the sands of Red-cliff, is much obscured by intermixture with the ruins of several 

 different strata fallen from above ; but it abounds in the characteristic fossils. The corresponding 

 portion of the Weald clay, on the west of the Hastings sands, between the fort at Sandown 

 and Shanklin Chine, forms a flat shore, which is visible only at low tides. Beyond Atherfield- 

 point, in like manner, the clay rises from beneath the Lower green-sand, and exhibits beautiful 

 sections in the Chines immediately on the north-west of that prominence : thence it passes inland, 

 through the lower grounds of Sutton, Thorncross, Yafford, Marsh-Green, Mottestone, Brook- 

 House, and Compton-Grange, and meets the coast on the south of the Lower green-sand ridge, at 

 Compton-Grange Chine ; where a similar section to that of the west of Atherfield (or rather to 

 that on the east of Sandown Bay), is exposed : but thereabouts the strata seem to have been 

 disturbed, — whether by mere subsidence or the presence of a fault, I did not ascertain. 



Hastings sand. — The general position and relations of that portion of these sands which is 

 visible on the coast of the island (for the sections do not go down to the lowest strata), will be 

 obvious from what has been already stated, with the aid of the section, Plate X. a. No. 7. In 

 Sandown Bay the sands form but a small insulated spot, of an irregular figure, surrounded by the 

 Weald clay : but on the south-west coast the superior strata of the formation are much better 

 developed ; occupying an oblong tract, approaching to the shape of half an oval, from the west 

 of Cowleaze Chine to Compton-Grange Chine. 



It will be seen from the Ordnance Map, that two small but remarkable prominences called 

 Atherfield Rocks, and Brook Point, project beyond the general line of the shore, between Rocken- 

 End and Freshwater Bay : so that the coast is divided into three shallow recesses, called Chale 

 Bay, Brixton Bay, and Compton Bay ; the last being, in fact, only the eastern portion of Fresh- 

 water Bay. Atherfield Rocks, and the heights on the south-east of them, belong to the Lower 

 green-sand, of which they are the outcrop. Brook Point (or perhaps the more obtuse prominence 

 of the shore between that place and Southmore,) is apparently the central and lowermost portion 

 of the Hastings sands; the culminating point being much nearer to the chalk in the centre of the 

 island, than to that on the south, in consequence of the more rapid rise of the strata in the central 

 range. A considerable prominence, however (which, in actual elevation, is the highest point of 

 the Hastings sands), occurs at Barnes's-high. 



The rocky ledges which shoot out from the land in several places along this part of the shore, 

 form some of its most striking features ; and make this coast exceedingly dangerous to shipping. 

 They all consist of the subcalcareous grit, which occurs throughout the Hastings sands, in con- 

 cretions more or less continuous and frequently of grea"; bulk. Similar ledges appear also, but 

 are less prominent, in the section at Sandown Bay ; and, as has been already mentioned (84.), on 

 the coast near Hastings. 



(96.) Sectional Lists of the Strata. — The preceding passages will enable 

 the reader to connect the subjoined lists of the strata^ in which I have availed 

 myself of the notes annexed to three beautifully executed sectional drawings 

 of part of this coasts by Sir John Herschel*. I shall here follow the shore 



* I should gladly have inserted Sir John Herschel's sectional drawings, and my own, in 

 place of the reduced general section, Plate X. a. No. 7. ; but this could not have been done without 

 such reduction as to exclude the greater part of their contents, and such exaggeration of the 

 heights, in proportion to the horizontal distances, as wholly to destroy their resemblance to 

 the natural appearance of the cliffs. 



In the following list I have adopted throughout Sir John Herschel's measurement ; and from 

 the difficulty of estimating the vertical thickness of the strata, in consequence of the varying 



