UPPEE EOCENE (bARTON AND UPPER BAGSHOT FORMATIONS). 601 



north-west of the pier, with Turritella and Cliama squamosa^ but 

 not massed together. We could not trace it in the cliff, though 

 the iron-bands seem to occupy the proper horizon of the shell-beds. 

 The Middle Bartons seem abnormally developed, being more than 

 three times the thickness seen at Highcliff, and nearly twice that 

 at "Whitecliff; but our junction is only 9 feet above the Highcliff 

 sands, perhaps considerably (12 to 20 feet) too low down. We have 

 taken the Survey measurement for the lowest bed of the Upper 

 Earton and to some extent for the Upper Bed of the Middle Barton, 

 as the road to the pier has been so considerably widened that these 

 divisions are now cut out, only three beds of Septaria being now visible, 

 and no lignite. Many rare species, not met with on the mainland, 

 are confined to these beds. The Lower Bartons maintain their 

 normal thickness and physical features, the pockets of sand, with 

 drifted shells, occurring precisely as at Highcliff, with the chief 

 characteristic species ; but the beds being vertical and squeezed are 

 not so favourably situated for collecting*. The shells in it are 

 small and confined to the upper part, gradually giving place to casts 

 for a few feet, after which the beds become unfossiliferous. The 

 last distinct zone of fossils is the Nummulites-elegans bed. The 

 quantity of ferruginous and carbonaceous matter indicates, perhaps, 

 shallow water. In comparing the section generally we are unable 

 to recognize any of the subdivisions of the Upper Barton on the 

 mainland, the beds having become, perhaps owing to their vertical 

 position, more uniformly sandy and unfossiliferous ; the Middle 

 Barton maintains its characters, but is enormously thicker, even 

 making some allowance for the obliquity of the section : the Lower 

 Barton has not increased to any appreciable extent. 



The Section at Whitecliee Bay (fig. 8). 



The most perfect section through the Eocene formation in 

 England, and perhaps in Europe, is exhibited at Whitecliff Bay, 

 in the Isle of Wight. The only beds at aU concealed are those of 

 the Barton Series, which have been hidden for years by slips and 

 growths of herbage and brambles. 



It is apparent, in glancing along the cliffs, that if the strata had 

 chanced to have been plotted out into divisions on this spot, instead 

 of elsewhere, a very different arrangement from that which exists 

 would have been arrived at. All the Brackleshams above the drab 

 clay, with seams of lignite and rootlets, must have been inchided in 

 the Bartons, and the Brackleshams, as a marine formation, must 

 have been limited to the beds with Nummulites Icevigatus, &c., QQ feet 

 lower down than the Pecten-comeus zone. It is far from certain 

 that such a division would not have proved more natural than that 

 which obtains, for not only is there evidence of intervening dry 

 land and freshwater deposits, but the fauna of the Lower Brackle- 



* Bristow mentions Bentalmm striatum, Fusus longcsvus, Voluta spinosa, 

 Solarium, Cardium, Natica (2 sp.), Fusus pyrus, Bostellaria, Camellaria, 

 Fleurotoma, Mitra, from this bed. 



