262 FOSSILS OF THE WEALDEN GROUP. [Ch. XVIIL 



Fig. 305. Fig. 306. Fig. 80T. 



Ct/pris Yaldensis, Fitton. 

 ((?. faba, Min. Con. 4S5.) 



"Weald clay with Cyprides. 



Hastings Sands. 



This lower division of the Wealden consists of sand, calciferous grit, 

 clay, and shale ; the argillaceous strata, notwithstanding the name, being 

 nearly in the same proportion as the arenaceous. The calcareous sand- 

 stone and grit of Tilgate Forest, near Cuckfield, in which the remains of 

 the Iguanodon and Hylseosaurus were first fcund, constitute an upper 

 member of this formation. The white " sand-rock" of the Hastings cliffs, 

 about 100 feet thick, is one of the lower members of the same. The rep- 

 tiles, which are very abundant in this division, consist partly of saurians, 

 already referred by Owen and Man tell to eight genera, among which, 

 besides those already enumerated, we find the Megalosaurus and Plesio- 

 saurus. The Pterodactyl also, a flying reptile, is met with in the same 

 strata, and many remains of Chelonians of the genera Trionyx and Emys, 

 now confined to tropical regions. 



The fishes of the Wealden are chiefly referable to the Ganoid and 

 Placoid orders. Among them the teeth and scales of Lepidotus are most 

 widely diffused (see fig. 308). These ganoids were allied to the Lejndos- 



Fig. 808. 



Lepidotus Mantetti, Agass. "Wealden. 

 a. Palate and teeth. B. Side view of teeth. 



c. Scale. 



teus, or Gar-pike, of the American rivers. The whole body was covered 

 with large rhomboidal scales, very thick, and having the exposed part 

 coated with enamel. Most of the species of this genus are supposed to 

 have been either river-fish, or inhabitants of the sea at the mouth of 

 estuaries. 



The shells of the Hastings beds belong to the genera Melanojms, Me- 

 lania, Paludina, Cyrena, Cyclas, TJnio (see fig. 309), and others, which 

 inhabit rivers or lakes ; but one band has been found at Punfield, in Dor- 

 setshire, indicating a brackish state of the water, where the gerfera Corbula 

 (see fig. 310), Mytilus, and Ostrea occur; and in some places this bed 



