193 Dr. FiTTON on the Strata below the Chalk. 



A. BoNCHURCH Cove to ajissure north of Littlest airs Point. 



a. The top of the first group of sand, about 30 feet thick, may be traced north-eastward, and 

 thence north, to its outcrop in the shoulder of the cliff, above a point called Horseledge, imme- 

 diately on the east of Derranew. It is composed chiefly of brownish sand ; but in some places 

 reddish and yellow. It may be remarked in general of these strata, that the colour seems to 

 depend on the accident of exposure to moisture ; the recent surfaces disclosed by the falling 

 away of the cliffs, being frequently ferruginous yellow, or even whitish ; whilst in other parts of 

 the same beds the hues are brown and dark greenish grey : the difference arising apparently 

 from the state of the iron, which the sand contains. 



h. The next group, also about ^0 feet thick, is composed of dark brownish sand and sandy clay> 

 but is bright yellow in some of its higher points. It rises at a short distance east of Bonchurch 

 Cove, occupies the shore thence to Steel Bay, and forms the principal portion of the cliffs at 

 Luccombe Chine, whence it is continued northward to the summit of Knock-Cliff, on the south 

 of Shanklin Chine. 



c. The bed or group which rises about midway between Steel Bay and Luccombe Chine extends on 

 the shore to about an equal distance north of the Chine, and goes out beneath the summit of 

 Knock-cliff. It is about 30 feet thick, generally of a dark grey and brownish hue. 



d. At a place called Derranew, north of Luccombe Chine, a bed rises, of much darker hue, and 

 more approaching to clay than the preceding. It occupies about a third of Knock-cliff, near 

 the lower part, where it spreads into a terrace ; forms the upper part of Shanklin Chine, and caps 

 the cliff as far as the south side of Small-hope Chine, a detached portion appearing on the top 

 of the cliff at Little-stairs Point. From this stratum masses have fallen, like those of Parham 

 in Western Sussex, consisting of highly ferruginous sand-rock, with numerous impressions of 

 shells (Gervillia — Natica — Rostellaria — Terebratula — Thetis — Trigonia — Turbo — Venus ?). 

 These are found in nodules loose upon the beach south of the Chine, and in situ, within the 

 Chine itself, at the upper part •, and the debris of these upper strata, at the foot of the cliffs 

 between Shanklin and Small-hope Cliines, afford several varieties of concretional sparry stone, 

 abounding in green particles, like the blocks on the shore near Folkstone (20.), containing the 

 remains of an Astacus, Corals, and Spatangi, with shells of the genera Ostrea, Serpula, Sphaera, 

 and Trigonia. 



e. A bed or group, not very prominently distinguished from the last, rises immediately on the 

 south of Knock-cliff. It is in general of a dark greenish, mud-like hue, contains a great pro- 

 portion of silicate of iron, and seems to correspond to part of the middle group between 

 Sandgate and Folkstone. This occupies about a third of Shanklin Chine, and forms the upper 

 portion of Small-hope Chine, whence it declines a little to the chasm at Little-stairs Point, by 

 which it seems to be cut off abruptly. 



f. Appears above the sea on the soutli of Shanklin Chine ; forming, as it rises, a terrace covered 

 with the debris of the upper strata, as far as Small-hope Chine, where its top is about 22 feet 

 above sett ; and then declines to the fissure near Little-stairs Point. It consists of an intensely 

 deep green, almost black sand, (no doubt a part of the middle group of Folkstone), and in 

 many places contains very fine specimens of Gryjjhcea sinuata. 



Immediately on the north of Little-stairs Point, about 800 pacesnorth of Small-hope Chine (and 

 about 1600 from Shanklin Chine) is a remarkable break or fissure: and here Sir John Herschel 

 found reason to suppose that a fault exists, the strata on the north of the chasm not correspond- 



