FITTON S SECTION AT ATHERFIELD. 



297 



of the mural precipices further on to the east, from which great flakes 

 or irregular masses are suddenly separated, covering the shore with 

 ruins, to be carried off with great rapidity by the waves. 



Fossils of the Atherfield Clay. 



Panopaea plicata, Sow. 



t* irregularis, d'Orh. 



t*Cypricardia undulata, Forbes. 

 Mactra Carteroni, d'Orb. 

 Corbula striatula, Sow. 



incerta ?, d' Orb. 



[The striae are scarcely visible in the 

 specimens, but the form is the same 

 as in the figure of d'Orbigny,] — M. 

 Hemicardium Austeni, Forbes. 

 Area Raulini, d' Orb. 

 *Nucula scapha, d'Orb. 

 *Pinna Robinaldina, d'Orb. 

 fVenus fenestrata, Forbes. 



*Venus Vectensis, Forbes. 

 *Avicula lanceolata, Forbes. 



Gervillia Forbesiana, d'Orb. (sole- 

 noides, Forbes.) 



Lima Cottaldina, d'Orb. 



Gryphsea sinuata. 



var. dorsata, Leym. 



Ammonites Deshayesii, Leym. 



* furcatus, Sow. 



f inflatus. 



Holaster complanatus. 

 t Leopoldinus. 



Serpula ? 



(Vermetus) polygonalis, Sow. 



\\\.—''The Crackers. ''—No. 4 to 10. 



This group, which forms a slight prominence on the shore, is sus- 

 tained by the solid nodules of the sand No. 5, to which the name of 

 " Crackers" has been applied, from the resounding of the waves in 

 the cavities below. It is perhaps the most remarkable portion of the 

 whole section, from the great variety of its fossils. It consists of four 

 beds of clay alternating with others more sandy, the total thickness 

 about 90 feet ; exhibiting an alternation of slopes (or undercliffs) with 

 nearly vertical faces, in fact a ''step (or txdi^) fo7"matio7i'' upon a 

 small scale. 



Fig. 5. " The Crackers'" Group. 



thrust outwards, cracked or broken throughout, and their fragments pushed up 

 into heaps more than six feet above the general level. The space on the confines 

 of the Wealden and the lower greensand which I had seen in 1843, and described 

 as beautifully disclosing their junction, was thus entirely concealed ; while the 

 base of the cliff eastward was uncovered, and the relations of the '* Crackers" 

 group much more clearly visible than before. — August 1844. 



