SECTION AT HOKDWELL CLIFFS. 567 



translated into English. It is indeed fortunate that she has so care- 

 fully preserved the information for us relating to the beds -which 

 have yielded the vertebrate remains. 



The senior of the writers was then acting as her collector. He 

 lived for a great part of his life close to Hordwell Cliff, and for four 

 or five years worked regularly on the cliffs, collecting fossils for the 

 Marchioness. Pacts relating to the exact spots where the vertebrate 

 and other remains were found were communicated to her, though 

 occasionally she would assist with her presence. 



We are particular in making this admission, because there are 

 some statements in her description which the writer cannot reconcile 

 with his memory or with the present state of the cliff. 



As far as the limits to which our section extends, we have, though 

 wishing to draw attention chieny to the freshwater Lower-Headon 

 series, also added measurements of the sands which come in below, 

 the so-called Upper Bagshot Sands of the Geological Survey. 



The thickness of the Lower Headon at Hordwell, between Long 

 Mead End and Paddy's Gap, we make to be 83-^ feet. The measure- 

 ments given by the Marchioness leave a wide margin. If we take 

 her maximum, it is 94 feet 10 inches, while her minimum gives 

 78 feet. Dr. Wright's numbers added up amount to about 64 feet. 



Commencing at the top of the series, the first bed (33) we de- 

 scribe as brownish-green marly clay, fully 3 feet thick ; it shows 

 signs of much weathering, and looks almost as if it was calcareous 

 enough to have been a limestone before being subjected to meteoric 

 action ; it contains Paludina lenta. Its base is brown and car- 

 bonaceous for one inch. A lignitic clay. 



(32) next below is a Limncea-m&il, passing to pale greenish-brow r n 

 clay ; both may be put together at from 1 foot 10 inches to 2 feet. 

 In this marl serpents' vertebrae have been found, while it has abun- 

 dance of Limncea and Paludina. 



We consider this Limnwa-m&rl to be probably on the horizon of, 

 and to be the equivalent of, the How-Ledge limestone on the other 

 side of the Solent. It bears a similar relation to the Unio-bed, 

 which is one of marked characters, and easily recognizable both in 

 the island and at Hordwell. Indeed, possibly (32) and (33), with 

 the lignitic layer between, represent the 5 feet of purer limestone 

 at How Ledge, with its thin lignitic layer in the middle. 



This stratum, comprising (32) and (33), is the highest bed we 

 have seen in the Lower Headon ; it forms the top of the Fresh- 

 water series, which is enclosed between the marine Middle Headon 

 and the estuarine Upper Bagshot Sands. 



Above it, we have said, is the Middle Headon, the marine bed 

 which formerly yielded so many of the same fossils as characterize 

 the Middle Headon of Colwell Bay and Headon Hill. The bed is 

 not to be seen now, as we have elsewhere remarked *, nor has it 

 been visible for many years. 



The earliest finder of the bed was apparently Mr. H. Higgins, 

 who found the fossils oozing out of the gravelly undercliff or tumbled 

 * Quart. Joum. Geol. Soc. vol. xxx\ii. p. 107 (1S81). 



Q.J.G.S. No. 156. 2 s 



