FROM GURNET BAY, ISLE OF WIGHT. 343 
Of Crustacea there have been found :—Candona Forbesit, Cythe- 
rideis unisulcata and C. Colwellensis, Cytheridea debilis, Miilleri, and 
perforata, Cythereis cornuta, Cytherella Miinsteri, Cythere plicata, 
C. angulatopora, and C. Wetherelli ; also two Cirripedes, Balanus un- 
guiformis and Pollicipes reflexus. 
These, with about 42 genera of Mollusca (many of which are 
estuarine and freshwater, and some land species), make up the 
known fauna of these beds at the time of the Geological Survey 
Memoir. 
To Mr. E. J. A’Court Smith is due the credit of the discovery of 
a thin but very richly fossiliferous band in this series of deposits at 
Thorness and Gurnet Bays, near Cowes, which has largely increased 
the interest of these beds, especially by a very important addition 
to the known terrestrial forms of life belonging to the HKocene 
period. 
The section is as follows :— 
General Section at Thorness and Gurnet Bays. 
Thickness. 
Surface soil. ft. in. 
I. Grey Clays with occasional bones of Hmys or Toe peas 10 0 
II. Lighter (Yellow) Clays with broken gshells.............:..00+6 2 0 
IIL. Limnca Limestone with Planorbis and bones of Emys, also 
hard concretions (Hard limestone bed) .........0ceseseecees 0 
TV. Variegated fossiliferous Clays .......cs-sscessesesessienecoraseues 8 0 
VY. Upper Limestone beds with Limnea and small oblong 
Osten (Oscncc spine cmtcn scrcince ase snasecestcenteni sciatica 3 0 
VI. Band of loose shells with Ostreg and Sharks’ teeth ......... 0 6 
WIT, Leto) (Cllenyss yall) GOmZiXG, \acnedesosnaxnacsooconandacnpsseqeseedb50dd 3 0 
VILL. Fossil Plant and Insect-bed ............cccssccescecsveseenscvenses 1 0 
Base of cliff, 
«The Limestone at Hempstead Ledge” (5 miles 8.W. of Gurnet 
Bay), writes Mr. Bristow *, “consists of three beds with other 
softer beds between, and contains numerous Limnea longiscata, Pla- 
norbis, Chara, &c. There, aswell as in Gurnet Bay and at West Cowes, 
it appears to be about 15 or 16 ft. thick. It presents very uniform 
characters in all these localities, where it is highly fossiliferous, and 
marked by the presence of occasional Planorbis, and Paludina orbicu- 
laris, together with (as usual) numerous G‘yrogonites and casts of 
Limnea longiscata. At the point between Gurnet and Thorney Bays it 
stretches out at sea towards Hempstead Ledge, in a direction 30°S. of 
W., with a dip 35°§8, of EK. On either side of Gurnet Bay it forms 
a conspicuous curve, and determines the form of the slope on which 
Cowes is built, although on the surface it is not seen, being concealed 
by the superincumbent marls and, eventually, by the gravel. On 
the quay, at West Cowes, it serves for the foundations of some houses 
built on the northern part of the Parade, opposite to which it forms 
a ledge dipping 10° 8. of E. and skirting the shore as far as 
Egypt. ” 
* “Memoir on the Geology of the Isle of Wight,” by H, W. Bristow. 
Mem. Geol. Survey Gt. Britain, 1862, 8yo, p. 77. 
