180 EEV. A. lEVING ON THE STEATIGKAPHY 



me that the sandy beds at the south end of this cutting graduate 

 down into the London Clay. On a second visit, in the month of 

 August, in company with H. W. Monckton, Esq., P.G.S., a closer 

 examination was made. Unfortunately a line of erosion occurs just 

 across this place, and we could find no exposures showing the 

 junction; but a little further to the south unmistakable London 

 Clay is exposed in the railway -cutting, though not enough to prove 

 the dip ; and this passes down into the mottled clays of the Wool- 

 wich and Reading series. The junction of the last-named beds 

 with the Chalk is very easily found. This formation dips here to 

 the north at an angle of 30°, and on its eroded surface (as at 

 Eeading) rests the Basement-bed of the Eeading series with Ostrea 

 bellovacina, green-coated flints, and many black grains. The thick- 

 ness of the Woolwich and Heading beds we estimated at about 60 ft, 

 that of the London Clay not much more, certainly under 100 ft« 

 The cutting in Tot Hill has been less minutely examined. This 

 has been rendered unnecessary, as the examination of the fresh 

 section by Prof. Eupert Jones was much more complete than any 

 examination could be now that the cutting-slopes are overgrown. 

 Near the southern end of this cutting, however, which does not 

 appear to have been open at the time, we recognized the green 

 earthy sands of the Middle Group in a somewhat advanced stage of 

 oxidation ; and a bed which corresponds very well with the upper 

 clayey bed (jSTo. 5 of my tabulation) of the I^iddle Group is exposed 

 in the bank at the Station. 



I venture to think that the Officers of the Geological Survey can 

 hardly feel much difficulty or surprise at the identification of beds 

 of the Middle Group in this section across a piece of country mapped 

 as " i. 4," Avhen they consider that a little further to the west, in 

 Highclere Park and at Woodhay, they have mapped outliers of this 

 group " i. 5." 



The interest of the section, however, does not end here. If we 

 follow the railway across the valley south of Highclere Station and 

 look westwards, we can see an open sand-pit, 5 of a mile off, near the 

 top of the hill above Eidgemoor Farm (see fig. p. 179), exposing beds 

 which cannot be brought very well into stratigraphical alignment 

 with the beds of either of the cuttings, when the now-ascertained dips 

 of the beds in those cuttings are taken into account. They clearly 

 occupy a higher horizon, since they are above the axis of the syncline, 

 and at a considerably higher altitude than the beds in the cuttings. 

 On visiting this sand-pit with Mr. Monckton, I could not fail to recog- 

 nize the strong lithological f acies of the Upper Sands ; and although 

 my companion was unwilling at first to admit this unreservedly, he 

 was soon converted to my view by finding an irony cast of a bivalve*. 

 There are about 18 feet of these Upper Sands exposed in this pit. 

 They are also exposed in gullies in the lane just north of the pit, 

 though much obscured by angular flints, the downwash of the 



* Mr. E. S. Herries, F.G.S., exliibited at the Society's meeting a number of 

 such casts which he has succeeded in finding in this pit. See ' Nature,' 

 vol. xxxvii. pp. 104, 128. 



