450 Mr. Austen on the 



compact sandstone, containing green earth, and are totally unlike any of the older 

 English strata ; but they are exactly such as occur on the beach near Swanage, and 

 derived from the harder beds of the greensand. I was unable to find a specimen 

 containing organic remains. If, as most geologists, I feel confident, will admit, 

 these pebbles have been derived from greensand beds, just as pebbles of the 

 hard compact sandstones of the raised marine beds on the actual coast may be 

 included in strata now being formed, we have proof that portions of the greensand 

 series had become consolidated, and having been exposed to destruction, had con- 

 tributed materials to the shingle beds in question ; or if this mass of shingle has 

 been derived from some older formation, as for instance, from some beds of the 

 oohtic series, the mineralogical agreement between the shingle and the overlying 

 sand would follow as a natural consequence, just as the recomposed tertiary green- 

 sand beds cannot be distinguished from the parent subcretaceous strata. Exogyrae 

 and Serpulse adhere to the pebbles. A host of the Blackdown fossils given in Dr. 

 Fitton's tables * are found in the branches of the formation which extend to the 

 sea-coast. East of Sidmouth large branched corals are very abundant, and a gigan- 

 tic, undescribed Ostrea. 



The next mass westward is that of High Peak, and traces of the deposit perhaps 

 occur on the Woodbury Hills, near the Belvidere. 



The greensand of Haldon differs a little from that of the Blackdowns. The lower beds, which rest on new 

 red sandstone (fig. 8 A.) and carbonaceous rocks, consist of clay and yellow sand, with fragments of shells, 

 or else of a pebbly conglomerate, made up of portions of the carbonaceous series, with shells and large 

 coralsf. This conglomerate may be found along the western slopes of Little Haldon. Sands with abun- 

 dance of green earth, layers of whetstone, and beds of shells of considerable horizontal extent and thick- 

 ness, converted into red or transparent chalcedony, form the middle portion. Above these are sands 

 with no green earth and lines of chert. A very distinct vegetation everywhere marks the line of 

 junction. 



To the westward of the Haldons the greensand has not been described by former 

 observers, yet it occurs in situations which make it exceedingly interesting, and 

 renders a detailed description the more necessary, as it illustrates some of the dis- 

 turbances which the district has experienced. 



One great mass is that of Milber Down, near Newton Bushel, where, owing to the thick accumulation 

 of sand and flints which forms the upper surface, and the few places in which unequivocal stratified beds 

 are exposed beneath, the tract has been usually considered a portion of the Bovey basin. The Milber 

 beds are identical with those of Haldon, and but for the roads, which in Haldon have exposed artificial 

 sections, proof of undisturbed greensand would be as difficult on one eminence as on the other. Along 

 the edges of the waste of Milber, as in the descent to Haccombe, however, are beds of true greensand, 

 with included layers of chert and whetstone, covered with characteristic fossils. From that place the 



* Geol. Trans., 2nd Series, vol. iv. part 2. p. 239. 



f Mr. Lonsdale I find refers these to Ehrenberg's genus Cyathina. 



