1 11. FOLKSTONE CLIFFS. 309 



part (Lign. 55). Eastware Bay, near Folkstone, is celebrated 

 for the beauty and variety of the Gait fossils, which are 

 constantly being washed out of the cliff by the action of 

 the sea. 



This series may be traced with more or less distinctness 

 around the denudation of the "Wealden, encircling the fresh- 

 water strata. The lowermost member, the Greensand, rises 

 into more importance towards the west ; and in Surrey, 

 Hampshire, and western Sussex, forms a line of bold hills, 

 which runs parallel with the chalk downs, and rivals them 

 in altitude ; a valley of gait gene rally intervenes between 

 the sand and chalk, as at Reigate. Along the Kentish 

 coast the three natural subdivisions of the greensand 

 are clearly defined. The upper, or Shanklin sand series, is 

 chiefly made up of ferruginous sands, with ironstone and 

 concretions of chert, and dark clays in the lower part. 

 The middle group is marked by the prevalence of green 

 and grey sand, with bands of calcareous sandstone and 

 cherty limestone, called Kentish rag. The lowermost, or 

 Atherfield series, consists principally of sandy argillaceous 

 beds, with layers of concretionary limestone, containing 

 numerous peculiar fossils. The Shanklin and Atherfield 

 deposits are so named from localities in the Isle of Wight 

 where they are developed in great thickness and extent.* 



In the north-east of Ireland the greensand constitutes an 

 important feature ; on the Continent it is found accompany- 

 ing the upper members of the chalk formation, and is well 

 displayed in Saxony, and along the Alps and Carpathian 

 mountains. 



11. Cretaceous strata xear Maestricht. — In the 

 valley of the Meuse there is a series of strata, the upper- 

 most beds of which contain many shells that occur also 

 in the tertiary ; these deposits pass downwards into lime-- 



* Sec my Geology of the Isle of Wight for details ; chap. vi. 



