§3. 



THE CRETACEOUS FORMATION. 297 



England, Northern France, Germany, Denmark, Sweden, 

 European and Asiatic Russia, and of the United States of 

 North America. Over this vast extent, the organic remains 

 present certain general characters, sufficiently precise to 

 determine the nature of the deposits. Whether imbedded 

 in pure white limestone, coarse sandstone, blue clay, loose 

 sand, or compact rock, the fossils consist, for the most part, 

 of species of the same genera of shells, corals, sponges, 

 echinites, belemnites, ammonites, and other marine animal 

 exuvia3 ; fishes, reptiles, wood, and plants. The white 

 chalk strata extend along a great part of the Hampshire, 

 Sussex, and Kentish coasts ; the precipitous headland of 

 Beachy Head, and the cliffs at Dover are well known ; 

 these natural sections exhibit the manner in which the 

 beds have been displaced, and thrown into various inclined 

 positions.* 



Along the southern coast of the Isle of Wight, the entire 

 series comprised in the Cretaceous formation is ex- 

 posed to view ; and the characters and relations of the 

 various deposits may be studied with facility, either on the 

 south-eastern or south-western coasts of the " beautiful 

 island." The white chalk strata, thrown into a nearly 

 vertical position, and boldly displayed, on the east at 

 Culver Cliff, and on the west at the Needles, traverse the 

 island from east to west ; being covered on the north by 

 tertiary deposits. In Sandown Bay, the strata have an 

 anticlinal position, f and on each side the axis of eleva- 

 tion, the several members of the Chalk, namely the 

 greensand, gait, firestone, marl, and chalk, appear in their 



* See The Fossils of the South Downs, or Illustrations of the Geology 

 of Sussex, 1 vol. 4to. with 42 plates. Geology of the South-East of 

 England, 1 vol. 8vo. Medals of Creation. Geology of the Isle of 

 Wight. 



f Anticlinal : a term applied to strata which incline or dip towards 

 each other, or from a central axis, like the ridge-tiles on the roof of a 

 house. 



