132 Notices and Extracts from the Minutes of the Geological Society. 



The strata of the first division (the Ashburnham limestone) have been so 

 fully described in my work, entitled Illustrations of the Geology of Sussex, 

 that it is unnecessary in this brief notice to do more than refer to the account 

 alluded to. These beds underlie the strata of Tilgate Forest, and perhaps 

 may hereafter be ranked with the Purbeck limestone, which in some respects 

 they resemble. The sandstone, &c. of Tilgate Forest are so well charac- 

 terized by their remarkable fossils, that their existence in remote localities is 

 easily determined. In every quarry where these beds are exposed, their 

 organic remains have been discovered more or less frequently. 



Mr. Webster, in 1813*, noticed beds of sandstone with intervening layers 

 of clay and sand, in the cliffs at Hastings, and discovered in them the bones, 

 teeth, and other remains of animals and numerous vegetables. The vegetables 

 allied to the Cycas, so commonly found at Tilgate Forest, are also of frequent 

 occurrence in the sandstone of Hastings ; large rolled portions of them are 

 constantly seen on the shore, which have been washed out of the cliffs and 

 thrown up by the waves. At Pye and Winchelsea, strata of a similar charac- 

 ter have been observed by Mr. Lyell, who informs me, " that the rock on which 

 the latter town is situated, rising from beneath the alluvial marsh by which it 

 is surrounded, presents cliffs more or less abrupt towards every point of the 

 compass. In a quarry on the road-side, near the ancient gateway leading to 

 Rye, the strata are distinctly exposed. The summit and base of the pit con- 

 sist of sand with layers of friable sandstone ; and in the centre a stratum of 

 limestone occurs 5 feet thick. In the cliffs, considerably below the level of 

 the base of the quarry, another bed of limestone is seen imbedded in the iron- 

 sand, thus clearly proving the alternation of these deposits. The fiat slabs of 

 the limestone of Winchelsea, where weather-worn, exhibit casts of small bi- 

 valves, which also appear in the intervening layers of sandstone. Rye, like 

 Winchelsea, is built upon a hillock of the iron-sand formation, containing beds 

 of calciferous sandstone." 



In tracing the Tilgate strata in their course westward, in the direction of a 

 line drawn from Hastings to Framfield, and from thence to Horsham, we find 

 them exposed in several quarries, which have been opened for repairing the 

 roads and other economical purposes ; but the surface exposed is too incon- 

 siderable to afford any decisive information respecting their geological position. 

 Chailey, Linfield, Cuckfield, St. Leonards and Tilgate Forests, may be men- 

 tioned as the most interesting localities. 



Still further to the west the strata are exposed to a considerable extent in 



* See Sir H. Englefield on the Isle of Wight, p. 237. 



