348 THE PLEISTOCENE DEPOSITS OF THE SUSSEX COAST. 



During the contiimous south-westerly gales of last autumn and 

 early winter, the loss of land on the west side of Selsey Bill was 

 extremely great. Not only was the cliff-line cut back several yards, 

 but the scour was so strong as to remove most of the beach and lay 

 bare platforms of Eocene and Pleistocene strata at a level where we 

 usually find nothing but beach-shingle. Immediately after the storm 

 of Oct. 24th I re-examined the coast close to Selsey^ and found that 

 erosion had been exceptionally marked opposite Medmerry Farm, 

 where the sea had undermined one corner of the farm buildings, 

 though in 18S9 it was about 20 yards away. This cutting back of 

 the cliflF, and the concurrent removal of most of the beach on the 

 foreshore opposite, exposed a section unlike anything which had 

 before been seen, though the unusual abundance of large erratics 

 on the foreshore had always led me to suspect that this was the 

 critical point, and that there was a probability of finding the glacial 

 deposit in place in the immediate neighbourhood. 



Below the level of mean tide there was seen only a wide expanse 

 of fossiliferous Bracklesham Clays full of Oorhulce^ but at a level 

 slightly higher, on the part of the foreshore first laid bare by these 

 storms, the junction of the Eocene and the Pleistocene strata was 

 exposed. The relations of the two deposits were so peculiar as at 

 once to attract attention. The junction was neither smooth nor 

 channelled, as is ordinarily the case, but the whole surface of the 

 hard Eocene clays, for a quarter of a mile, was full of basins or 

 pits from 2 to 6 feet across. These pits were usually unconnected 

 with each other, and strike one as a feature totally unlike the 

 irregular eroded channels formed by running water between tide- 

 marks. Many of the pits had nearly vertical sides and were 2 feet 

 or more in depth, but it was difficult to ascertain the extreme depth, 

 for on each occasion when the section was well exposed the pits 

 were full of water, and time and the tides would not allow me to 

 bale out or drain many of them. 



Eig. 1. — Diagram-section to show the relation of the erratic Uochs 

 to the floor of Braclclesham Beds. 



Eour out of every five of the basins contained nothing but loose 

 gravel, with a few valves of Balanas and rare fragments of marine 

 moUusca. The loose material, except where cemented by iron oxide, 

 had been almost entirely removed by the recent storms, which were 

 not able to make much impression on the harder Bracklesham Clays. 

 The remainder of the basins were much more interesting, for each 

 of them contained an erratic block, which had not merely been 

 dropped, but showed signs of having been forcibly squeezed or 

 screwed into the clay, until its upper surface was flush with the 



