SIMMS ON THE TESTON CUTTING. 189 



the new deposit thus supposed to exist shall be considered as the 

 representative of our Wealden is still another question, which it 

 is not necessary to enter into at present. 



§. In the mean time, every Geologist who doubts the possibility of 

 any part of our Lower Green Sand assuming the form of limestone, 

 and, in that condition, acquiring great development and import- 

 ance, will do well to examine the quarries of the Kentish Rag on 

 the south-east of Maidstone * ; where the stone which in other 

 portions of this tract is concretional, and irregularly distributed 

 through masses of soft calcareous tuff, assumes the form of uni- 

 form and continuous strata of compact limestone, ranging horizon- 

 tally through large spaces, and adapted, by its firmness and 

 durability, to all the purposes of the architect and mason. In these 

 same quarries, it is probable, abundant proofs of identity with 

 the Neocomian beds will be found : and this within twenty miles 

 of a tract where nearly the whole deposit is composed of sand. 



The Boughton Group, like that of Hythe and Kent in general, 

 may answer to the Upper Neocomian limestone ; as the fullers' 

 earth and other clays of Atherfield correspond to the blue marl of 

 Neufchatel. It is useless to press exact identification between 

 such distant deposits to an extreme, since we constantly find 

 diversity even in the adjoining quarries of a continuous country, 

 while on the other hand, Geologists are frequently surprised by 

 minute points of empirical resemblance in very distant places. 



§. The author of this paper had long since stated the objections 

 to which the name of Lower Green Sand is exposed f, but thought 

 it expedient in 1835 to adopt that term, on the ground of its uni- 

 versal employment in England, and its very general reception on 

 the Continent. J On this ground he still thinks that this name 

 ought, for the present, to be retained. If hereafter a change be 

 thought desirable, he conceives that the new denomination should 

 be taken from the Isle of Wight, where this portion of the sub- 

 cretaceous groups was first distinguished, and where the sections 

 on the coast are remarkable for their distinctness ; and if such a 

 case should arise, he suggests the name of Vectine for the strata 

 now called Lower Green Sand, from the ancient name of that 

 island, — Insula Vectis of the Romans. 



3. On the Junction of the Lower Green Sand and the 

 Wealden, at the Teston Cutting. By F. W. Simms, Esq. 

 F.G.S. 

 The Author in this communication mentions that the beds rest- 

 ing on the Wealden in this locality (near Teston turnpike, on the 



* Especially at Boughton. 



f Annals of Philosophy, London, 1824. 



\ Geol. Trans. 2d Ser. iv. p. 105. 



