92 Mr. AV'ebster on a Fresh-ivaier Formation in Hordwell Cliff, ^c. 



Wight^ an(l_, bcin^ thrown on the latter place, it is rapidly destroying the 

 coast : but the north side of the Solent being defended from its action by the 

 bar of shingles, an extensive deposition of mud, that has been carried down by 

 the rivers and streams in this part of Hampshire, has taken place along that 

 shore. 



Where tiie bar of Hurst Castle joins the land, about half a mile south of 

 the village of Milford, the shore rises into a low cliff, which, for a quarter of a 

 mile, consists only of gravel ; but at this spot the original strata appear, dipping 

 a few degrees to the east. The cliff increases in height until it attains an 

 elevation of about two hundred feet, and continues nearly to Muddiford with- 

 out interruption, except where it is cut through by two streams that flow into 

 the sea. The part properly called Hordwell Cliff, extends from the spot where 

 the original strata first appear at the eastward, just below Milford, to a place 

 called Long-mead End, a distance of a mile and a half. From Long-mead 

 End to a gap in the cliff, occasioned by a stream called Beacon Bunny, is 

 about half a mile, and is called Beacon Cliff. Barton Cliff reaches about two 

 miles and a quarter from Beacon Bunny to Chuton Bunny, where another 

 stream, rather more considerable, comes down. The remaining portion, 

 which extends to within a quarter of a mile of Muddiford, is called High 

 Cliff. 



All these cliffs are capped by a bed of gravel, which, in Hordwell and Bar- 

 ton Cliffs, attains a thickness of at least fifty feet. 



It is in Hordwell Cliff that the fresh-water formation is to be seen ; the whole 

 of the lower part of this cliff, indeed, consists of it, and not of the London 

 clay; — which last is found only in Barton and High Cliffs ; and it is in these 

 cliffs that the shells, usually called Hordwell fossils, are found. The fresh- 

 water shells, to be seen in the collections of these fossils, have not been found 

 mixed with those of the London clay, but in a bed entirely distinct. 



The fresh-water formation in Hordwell Cliff consists of various alternations 

 of clays and marls. Some of the beds of clay are of a beautiful blueish-green 

 colour, and others are blackish. Thin beds also occur consisting of hard cal- 

 careous marl, which appears to be derived entirely from shells of the fresh- 

 water genera Limneus and Planorbis, of which numerous perfect specimens 

 are to be found in it. A species of Paludina (Helix lenta of Brander) is also 

 very common in this formation, occurring usually in layers ; together with a 

 great number of a beautiful small Melania and two species of bivalves. 



In some parts of this bed I discovered also a prodigious number of minute 

 fossil bodies, which, upon examination, are found to resemble the capsules of 

 some vegetable. They are about the twentieth of an inch in diameter, of a 



