370 THE WONDERS OF GEOLOGY. Lect. IV. 



friable sandstone, was formerly exposed on the sea-shore ; 

 having at a very remote period been separated from the 

 adjacent cliff. The action of the waves having bleached 

 the projecting layers of grit, the mass obtained the local 

 name of " White roek" (Lign. 79) ; but the late improve- 

 ments at St. Leonard's have removed all traces of this 

 outlying portion of the Hastings beds.* The nature of the 

 organic remains which the strata contain will be con- 

 sidered hereafter. 



6. Pounceford. — In the interior of the country, the 

 quarries opened along the ridges formed by the compact 

 grit, afford various instructive sections ; and the valleys 

 which are eroded by streams, expose in many places the 

 beds of shales, laminated clays, and limestones. Pounce- 

 ford, on the estate of the Earl of Ashburnham, on the road 

 to Burwash, in Sussex, presents several highly interesting 

 sections of these deposits. Descending through a defile cut 

 through the Hastings sands, we arrive at the bottom of 

 a deep glen, along which a rapid stream, that bursts out 

 from between the clay-partings, rushes to a distant and 

 lower valley. On each side the vale, openings are made 

 to arrive at a greyish blue limestone abounding in shells, 

 which is employed on the roads, and is also converted into 

 lime for agricultural purposes. Where the stone lies deep, 

 shafts are sunk from the surface, and after the extraction 

 of the limestone, they are deserted and filled up. This 

 spot is highly interesting and picturesque ; incru sting 

 springs issue from the limestone beds, and deposit tufa on 

 the mosses, equiseta, and land-shells. Thousands of fossil 

 shells are seen in the clays and shales; and stems of 

 plants, scales of fishes, teeth and bones of reptiles, and 

 other remains, are imbedded in the stone ; while the banks 

 where newly exposed, exhibit numberless alternations of 



* Geology of the South -East of England, p. 194. 



