Dr. FiTTON on the Strata below the Chalk. 227 



" village of Sindree and its environs. Every geologist/' Mr. Lyell justly 

 remarks^ " will at once perceive, that forests sunk by such subterranean 

 " movements may become imbedded in subaqueous deposits both fluviatile 

 " and marine, and the trees may still remain erect ; or sometimes the roots 

 " and part of the trunks may continue in their original position, while the 

 " currents may have broken off or levelled with the ground their upper 

 "stems and branches*." 



(115.) It is very desirable that the examination of the Portland quarries 

 should be repeated from time to time : for as the valuable stone lies deep in 

 the series, and it is necessary, for the purpose of obtaining it, to remove the 

 whole of the incumbent matter, the features described in this paper are con- 

 stantly undergoing a process of destruction ; while, on the other hand, new 

 facts are continually brought into view, which are lost if not observed at the 

 moment. The greater part of the phaenomena described by my predecessors 

 had thus disappeared when I visited the island, and a few hours might have 

 removed the fossils which I observed in the bed below the Cap. Geologists 

 may assure themselves that the trouble of a journey to Portland will be most 

 amply rewarded ; since few places, it is probable, in the world, exhibit with 

 such distinctness and in so small a space, phaenomena of more extraordinary 

 interest, or of greater importance to theory. 



(116.) The strata, abruptly cut off by the sea on the west coast of Port- 

 land, are found no more in that direction in Englandf ; nor do they occur on 

 the opposite coast of France immediately on the south, which consists of the 

 primary masses of Guernsey, Auvigny, and the main land about Cherbourg. 

 On the east of the last-mentioned promontory, where they might be expected 

 to appear among the beds beneath the chalk between the mouth of the Seine 

 and Bayeux, their presence, I believe, has not been distinctly ascertained. 

 And on the north of the Seine they must be far below the level of the 

 English Channel, at least as far as Etaples, where the rocks upon the shore 

 consist of chalk with flints in situ. The Portland beds, with a thin covering 

 of the lowest Purbeck strata, rise from beneath the chalk and green-sand on 

 the south of Equihen in the Lower Boulonnois, and are found all along the 

 cliffs thence to the north of Cape Gris-nez, where they again give place to 

 the superior strata. They have not yet been discovered, so far as I am in- 

 formed, further to the north in Europe. 



* Principles of Geology, 4th edition, vol. iv. p. 274. 



t The most western point where the Portland strata have been found in England, is on the 

 main land near Portishani, twenty miles west of Lulworth Cove. See p. 15. of this volume. 



