fitton's section at atherfield. 293 



St7'atigraphical Table of the Fossils. 

 The fossil contents of the strata composing this section are shown 

 at one view in the Table annexed to this paper ; the vertical columns 

 on the left hand enumerating the groups and strata, and the list at 

 the hottom the names of the species, in systematic order. The places 

 of the occurrence of the species are marked by the intersection of the 

 strata lines with those connected with their respective numbers ; so 

 that it will be easy to ascertain the species in any given stratum : 

 and reciprocally, by reading vertically, — or turning the table and 

 reading across from the specific names, the strata in which any given 

 species has hitherto been found can be obtained. It will be obvious 

 that answers to a great number of questions respecting the numbers 

 and distribution of the fossil remains can be obtained by mere inspec- 

 tion from such a table, which has the advantage of giving results ex- 

 pressing only facts, unbiassed by any mixture of hypothesis. The 

 names of the fossils are principally those of the catalogue of Lower 

 Greensand fossils in the Museum of the Geological Society* ; and I 

 am indebted to my friend Mr. Morris, by whom my specimens were 

 named, for a very careful examination of the whole of my collection, 

 and for his valuable observations on some of the species. 



Description of the Section. 



In the following pages the reader is supposed to pass along the 

 coast from west to east, and to meet the strata as they rise from the 

 level of the sea. 



Junction with the Wealden. — -Having described in the Geological 

 Society's Proceedings f, the junction between the Wealden and the 



* By Prof. Ed. Forbes, Geol. Soc. Quart. Journal, vol. i. pp. 237 and 346, &c. 



t Minutes of May 24, 1843, vol. iv. p. 198, &c. — As the account of this place 

 would otherwise be incomplete, I transcribe a part of the paper here referred to, 

 which was published before the commencement of the present * Journal ; ' — with 

 a slight addition from a ' Report' printed in the Bulletin of the Geol. Society of 

 France (2nde serie, t. i. 458, &c.) : — 



" The time of the author's late visit to AtherlSeld was very fortunate. The sea, 

 during severe gales, having previously not only cleared away a great part of the 

 ruin which formerly concealed the base of the cliffs, but having entirely remove'd 

 the shingle of the beach to a most unusual extent ; so that the junction of the 

 Wealden with the lower greensand was distinctly exposed for several hundred 

 yards, while a very large surface of the adjacent strata, washed perfectly clear, was 

 visible at low water on both sides of it. 



" The strata composing the section thus beautifully exhibited were the follow- 

 ing :— 



«' Weald clay, with the usual characters, which it is not the object of this paper 

 to describe in detail. The very uppermost beds here consist of slaty clay, and con- 

 tain some characteristic fossils of the Wealden, especially Cyclas media and small 

 Paludince ; along with these, at the top of the freshwater strata, were Cerithia, 

 probably of a new species, with one or more thin-shelled oysters or Gryphcece, in 

 comparatively small number. 



" The contact exhibits no appearance of violence. Slips in splinters as it were 

 of the Wealden clay, not wholly detached, are surrounded rather than mixed with 

 whitish and grey sand ; above these comes a compound of clay (mud) and coarser 

 sand or gravel, of a greenish hue, in which are fragments in great number of the 

 bones and teeth of fishes, chiefly belonging to fresh water ; and next the more 

 uniform mass, containing at the very lowest part specimens of marine shells. The 

 junction occupies about six or eight inches in vertical thickness, so that it is easy 

 to detach portions not more than a foot thick, composed at the bottom of the Weal- 



