Dr. FiTTON on the Strata below the Chalk. 



197 



50—70 



Thickness 

 Paces. [ Wec-ld Claij.^ in Feet. 



4775 — 5700. Amass of incoherent, muddy-brown, grey, and blue clay immediately ^ 

 succeeds to tlie last bed, and goes out in the east side of Shepherd's Chine about 

 6100. It has covered the beach with an immense ruin of mud, which contains the 

 substances under mentioned. The ledge called Atherfield Rocks, which is visible at 

 low water, about 10 feet below the bed of sand-rock with Gryphites, consists of blue 



slaty clay, including Cypris Valdensis in myriads, with thin portions of pyrites 



Between 4800 and 5000 is Atherfield Point; and here the course of the beach alters. 



5040. At this point the stratification of the clay is distinctly discernible on the beach. 

 It is deep blue black, and shivery 



5440. Here occurs a thin seam of pyrites in large flat cakes, with rounded outlines, in 

 great abundance. They seem to form a bed, but are individually discrete, like the 

 flints in chalk*. The rise of this seam is not visible 



5500. Large, well-formed, transparent crystals of selenite, 2 or 3 inches long, lozenge- 

 shaped, not lenticular 



5580. Thin stony layers of very tough limestone, half an inch thick, which seems to 

 consist of a(T<rlutinated small oysters, the flat shells of which are chiefly visible 



Aboi^t 5700, immediately on the west of Atherfield Point, is a deep and rugged recess, 

 called Tiepit. 



5700 — 62;»0. A thick bed (50, 60, or 70 feet) of black shaly mud, including occasional " 

 layers of tough, hard, shelly limestone, consisting, seemingly of agglutinated bivalves 

 (Cyclades) I". The concave surfaces of the shells lie uppermost, and form the whole 

 surface of the layers. The lower surface of these layers of stone is curiously corru- 

 gated, (or studded) with short, crossing protuberances, apparently the edges of pro- 

 jecting shells. The layers are one or two inches thick. There are also in this bed 

 tough, stony, non-effervescent layers; but the general material is a blue or black clay, 

 which breaks into thin layers, like mashed slates. [This bed constitutes the bottom 

 and a great portion of the lower part of Shepherd's Chine : it rises to the top of the 

 cliff", far to the west, about 500 or GOO paces west of Cowleaze Chine.^ 



6220. About this point is the middle of Shepherd's Chinc^. 



6220 — 6440. The whole is yellow sand, but little coherent ; the upper part more 

 compact, including large pyritous balls excessively hard and tough ; the lower soft 

 and shivery. This bed occupies on the shore about half the space from Shepherd's 

 to Cowleaze Chine. The top goes out about 900, the bottom at 1200 paces west of 

 Cowleaze. It crosses Cowleaze Chine at the upper part, and thence westward 

 rises steadily at tlie upper part of the cliff" I 



6440 — 6615. Upper 7 feet shaly mud, in thin flakes ; lower 3 feet black, not adhesive 

 mud, which breaks into layers. No fossils. The whole 10 feet thick ^ 



6615, to about 20 north-west of Cowleaze Chine. A stratum consisting of two layers : n 

 upper 3 feet sand ; the lower 3 feet a black shaly clay, passing into the stony stratum J- 6 

 next below. Goes out about 1500 paces north-west of the Chine J 



6650. Is about the middle of Cowleaze Chine. 



* Flat, cake-like, nodules of pyrites occur in what I have supposed to be the upper part of the 

 Weald-clay, at Peasemarsli, near Guildford in Surrey. See above (64.). 



t Some of these beds of limestone break into rhomboidal pieces, the angles of which projecting 

 in the face of the cliff", produce serrated lines remarkably contrasted with the uniform surface of 

 the clay. 



J It is through this chine that a streamlet, which once made its way to the shore at Cowleaze 

 Chine, now reaches the sea ; and tlie manner in which the alteration was produced, shows the 

 facility of changes on a coast composed of materials like these sands and clays. The streamlet 

 in the Ordnance Map is seen to rise near the village of Kingston, probably at the junction of the 

 ferruginous upper member of the Lower green-sand with the middle retentive group (25.). It was 

 very tortuous near the shore, and formerly came close to the edge of the cliff" near its present out- 

 let, but made its way to the beach at Cowleaze ; till, the soft and narrow barrier at top having been 

 cut through, the water soon deepened the chasm, and formed anew chine, leaving its previous bed, 

 with Cowleaze Chine itself, deserted and dry. 



10 



