534 PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL society. [June 8, 
No. 8 from Stubbington, northwards. ‘Titchfield common and the 
tableland about it is gravel-covered; but this appears not to be 
the case with the corresponding level between Titchfield and Fare- 
ham. The lower level of Brunage, Hill Head, Stubbington, and 
Alverstoke is almost uniformly covered with gravel or brick-earth. 
The section which is seen in the cliff between Hook and Browndown 
has been well described by Mr. Evans*; the cliff is everywhere 
less than 40 feet above the mean sea-level, and the gravel in several 
places reaches as low as high-water mark. 
From Browndown a low inland cliff, which rises above the shingle 
of the rifle-ranges, runs inside the fortification-ditch as far as the 
railway at Anglesea, and marks the boundary of the gravel which 
covers the level of Lee, Grange, and Alverstoke. Between this 
cliff and the shore lies a level tract more than three miles long and 
a quarter of a mile wide, and but little above high water. The 
structure of the shingle composing it was exposed in extensive ex- 
cavations made to obtain materials for the concrete blocks for the 
Spithead forts. It is evidently a recent beach-deposit due to exist- 
ing conditions. It has not the coherence or the ferruginous colour 
of the gravel in the cliffs of Brunage and Lee, from which it also 
differs in containing numerous oyster and other shells; but the 
materials are the same, flints but little rolled, with frequent seams 
of sand, and in general structure there is a good deal of similarity. 
About Portsmouth a low gravel-covered flat, which is apparently 
a continuation of that on the Gosport side of the harbour, extends 
to the base of the chalk range of Portsdown Hill, to the east of 
which the lower level is again divided from a higher gravel-covered 
surface 140 feet above the sea by a slope. Section No. 9 through 
Hayling Island, and passing half a mile to the west of Bourne 
Common, to which point the westward extension of the Brighton 
beach has been traced by Mr. Prestwich}, shows a very similar out- 
line to the sections near Titchfield (Nos. 7 & 8). Still further east- 
ward are the remains of the old sea-bed at Avisford and Waterbeach t 
with marine shells at from 80 to 100 feet above the sea-level, to the 
south of which lies the low ground of Selsea, covered with marine 
gravel containing large blocks of syenite, porphyry, granite, &c. 
and overlying the mud-deposit of Pagham§, which contains littoral 
shells of southern species, with remains of Hlephas antiquus ||. 
(¢) The gravel varies but little in character or composition over the 
area which has now been described; it consists almost exclusively 
of chalk flints, little rolled and often perfectly fresh. There is 
always, however, a proportion of tertiary pebbles; and where, as 
between Bournemouth and Christchurch, extensive pebble-beds occur 
in the underlying tertiary strata, the proportion of pebbles in the 
* Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc. vol. xx. p. 188. 
tT Quart. Journ. Geol. Soe. vol. xv. p. 215. { Ibid. 
§ Vide Mr. Godwin-Austen, Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc. vol. xiii. p. 50, and Sir C. 
Lyell’s ‘ Antiquity of Man, p. 281. 
|| The Rey. O. Fisher believes (Geological Mag. vol. i. p. 140) that the remains 
of £, meridionalis are also found in this deposit. 
