FITTON ON THE ATHERFIELD AND HYTHE SECTIONS. 181 



The junction of the Lower Green Sand with the Wealden on 

 the south of Nutfield was disclosed by the cutting for the railway 

 near Robert's Hole Farm, as mentioned in my last paper. On the 

 N. W. of this farm, a flexure or depression of the strata brings 

 down one of the principal beds of fullers' earth to the level of the 

 railroad, near the Redhills (or Reygate) station ; and this was ex- 

 posed, some months ago, in a bank immediately behind the original 

 Station House* of the South Eastern Company. 



I have hitherto seen no traces of this upper fullers' earth at 

 Hythe ; but at two intermediate points, viz. Tilburstow Hill, near 

 Godstone, and the top of Mrs. Bensted's principal quarry, near 

 Maidstone, fullers' earth appears with somewhat peculiar characters, 

 above the mass of stone, which has been considerably disturbed at 

 both places. A few feet (10 or 12) below this fullers' earth at 

 Tilburstow f, portions of white or yellowish sand in a stemlike 

 arrangement occur, precisely resembling what I shall presently 

 mention as fallen from the upper part of the cliffs on the east of 

 Whale-Chine near Atherfield. If these appearances in Kent and 

 Surrey mark the top of the limestone, they may possibly indicate 

 a corresponding point in the Atherfield section. 



§. A continued search has brought to light many specimens of 

 fossils, among which are several new species, in a bed which 

 seems to be immediately above the fullers' earth of Atherfield 

 Point. They were described to me as occurring in detached masses 

 or lumps in the sandy clay immediately under the lowest range of 

 larger concretional masses which form the prominence of the eoast 

 at the " Crackers." The fossils are united by a medium which 

 varies from a loose sand to a somewhat calciferous stone, or indurated 

 fullers' earth. These lumps may, possibly, be the representative of 

 the masses which are mentioned by M. Leymerie as occurring in 

 the " Argiles Ostreennes," of the department of the Aube. 



§. The " Crackers" is the name given to a projecting part of the 

 coast, which owes its prominence to the presence above the level 

 of the sea of two ranges of nodular masses, occurring in a bed of 

 sandy clay about 18 or 20 feet in thickness, and at the junction of 

 which with the sandy stratum next below the Ammonites Des- 

 hayesii was frequent. These nodules of sand and calciferous 

 sand-rock are the only stone upon the coast which can be con- 

 sidered as representing the (Kentish) limestone of Hythe and 

 Maidstone, &c. ; and their distance from the bottom of the Lower 

 Green Sand accords with this identification. 



The vertical distance from the bottom of the Crackers to the 



* This Station has since been removed to the Junction with the Brighton 

 Railway. 



I find from the Railway Plan of the country near Redhills and Nutfield that 

 Mr. Simms has estimated the height of two of the fullers' earth pits nearest to 

 Robert's Hole Farm at 140 and 160 feet above the junction of the Lower Green 

 Sand and Weald clay, which has afforded the Perna Mulleti and other remarkable 

 fossils of Feasmarsh and Atherfield. 



f See Account of Tilburstow. Geol. Trans, vol. iv. p. 138. 



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