1870.] copRINGTON—HAMPSHIRE AND ISLE-OF-WIGHT GRAVELS. 535 
gravel is considerable. Fragments of sarsen, or grey-wether 
sandstone, are met with everywhere, and blocks of considerable size 
are found in the gravel of the cliffs between Southampton Water and 
Gosport, and near Southampton, at 170 feet above the sea. A block 
of puddingstone, part of a larger mass, which is stated to have come 
from the gravel of Hordwell Cliff, is now in the Jermyn-Street Mu- 
seum. Mr. Godwin-Austen* has recorded the presence of waterworn 
specimens of white quartz, granite, and porphyry i in the gravel on 
the high plain a little to the east of Poole, at about 160 feet above 
the sea; and white quartz-pebbles certainly occur as far east as 
Lymington. In the gravel covering Portsea Island, at a level not 
much above high water, numerous blocks of granite, syenite, and 
greenstone, as well as of sarsen-stone, are found. They are to be 
seen lying in the gravel-pits near Southsea,where the gravel is at least 
27 feet thick, and covered with brick-earth, and in the excavation 
for the sewers they were frequently met with. They are rounded 
and smoothed boulders, from 1 to 2 cubic feet in size, and have un- 
dergone a partial decomposition, which renders them brittle. They 
do not appear to extend to the gravel on the west of Gosport, which 
is but little higher in level. They are probably derived from the 
same source as the similar boulders of Pagham and Bracklesham, 
namely, from rocks on the French side of the channel. 
Brick-earth of a sandy nature is generally interstratified in the 
gravel in lenticular seams, and sometimes overlies it. The bedding 
is generally even and free from disturbance or contortion ; and it is 
to be remarked that the contortions and foldings of the brick- 
earth and gravel usually attributed to glacial action are met with 
only at comparatively low levels. In the low gravel-clifts to the 
south of Christchurch, near Brunage, and in a gravel-pit near Angle- 
sea (Pl. XXXYVII. fig. 14) the characteristic convolutions are seen ; 
but the height at these places is not more than 30 feet above the sea. 
At heights ranging to 200 and 300 feet above the sea, the gravel 
is sometimes folded, apparently from the unequal wasting and sub- 
sidence of the clay or marl on which it lies. There is an instance of 
this near Chilworth “Tower of the Winds,” at 300 feet above the sea, 
where the Bracklesham clay has so wasted and subsided (fig. 15). 
This action is more commonly observable at the edges of the plains, 
and in some cases from this cause the bedding of the gravel has been 
entirely effaced. 
The general colour of the gravel is a deep red-brown; there is, 
however, a white gravel (so known locally and distinguished from the 
red or binding gravel) which is often met with and deserves some 
notice. It generally overlies the red gravel and penetrates it in pot- 
holes and pipes. It is loose and sandy, and the flints in it are white, 
with a curious porcelain-like lustre. The sandy matrix is sometimes 
dark with vegetable matter, and there is often a black carbonaceous 
band between the white gravel and the red (vide fig. 15), I believe 
that generally the white gravel has been formed in setu, and that its 
* Quart, Journ, Geol, Soe, vol, xiii, p. 45, 
