The Pleistocene Deposits of the Sussex Coast. 133 



held to be representatives of the ' Bubble-drift/ which is of a 

 variable character. 



The author discusses the views of previous writers on the origin 

 of the accumulations which he classes together as ' Bubble-drift,' 

 and points out objections to the various views. He considers that 

 they were formed on upheaval after a period of submergence 

 which took place slowly and tolerably uniformly ; and that the 

 absence of marine remains and sedimentation shows the sub- 

 mergence to have been short. This submergence cannot have been 

 less than 1000 feet below present sea- level, and was shortly brought 

 to a termination by a series of intermittent uplifts, of which the 

 ' head ' affords a measure, sufficiently rapid to produce currents 

 radiating from the higher parts of the country, causing the spread 

 of the surface-detritus from various local centres of higher ground. 

 The remains of the land animals killed during the submergence 

 were swept with this debris into the hollows and fissures on the 

 surface, and finally over the old cliffs to the sea- and valley-levels. 

 Simultaneously with this elevation occurred a marked change of 

 climate, and the temperature approached that of the present day. 

 The formation of the 'head' was followed in immediate succession 

 by the accumulation of recent alluvial deposits ; so that the Glacial 

 times came, geologically speaking, to within a measurable distance 

 of our own times, the transition being short and almost abrupt. 



In this paper only the area in which the evidence is most 

 complete is described. The author has, however, corroborative 

 evidence of submergence on the other side of the Channel. 



2. "The Pleistocene Deposits of the Sussex Coast, and their 

 Equivalents in other Districts." By Clement Beid, Esq., E.L.S., 

 E.G.S. 



The gales of last autumn and early winter exposed sections such 

 as had not before been visible in the Selsey Peninsula. Numerous 

 large erratic blocks were discovered, sunk in pits in the Bracklesham 

 Beds. These erratics included characteristic rocks from the Isle of 

 Wight. The gravel with erratics is older, not newer as is commonly 

 stated, than the Selsey 'mud-deposit' with southern mollusca. 

 Numerous re- deposited erratics are found in the mud-deposit, which 

 is divisible into two stages, a lower, purely marine, and an upper, or 

 Scrobicularia-mud, with acorns and estuarine shells. 



At West Wittering a fluviatile deposit, with erratics at its base 

 and stony loam above, is apparently closely allied to the mud- 

 deposit of Selsey ; it yields numerous plants, land and freshwater 

 mollusca, and mammalian bones, of which lists are given. 



The strata between the brickearth ( = Coombe Bock) and the 

 gravel with large erratics yield southern plants and animals, and 

 seem to have been laid down during a mild or iiiterglacial episode. 

 A similar succession is found in the Thames Valley and in various 

 parts of our eastern counties. 



