DESCRIPTION OF THE PLATES. 463 



At Aldborough. the Coralline Crag appears inland; and in the cliffs at Bawdsey 

 and Felixstow, the Red Crag* is seen overlying the London clay ; and a fine section 

 is exhibited at Walton Naze, south of Harwich. At Clacton, there is a post- 

 tertiary deposit, containing freshwater shells, and mammalian remains. 



We now approach the embouchure of the Thames, which lies in a trough of 

 London or eocene clay ; certain localities, as the Isle of Sheppey, the cliffs in 

 Heme Bay, &c. abounding in fruits and other vegetable remains, which are 

 associated with marine shells, and bones of mammalia, birds, reptiles, scales and 

 teeth of fishes, &c. 



The North Foreland of the chalk range of Kent is next passed, the coast being 

 flanked by vertical cliffs of the Cretaceous formation to Dover. The grey chalk 

 appears at the base of Shakspeare's Cliff ; and the lower members of the series, the 

 Firestone, Gait, and Greensand, at Folkstone and Hythe ; the cliffs in Eastware 

 Bay abound in Gait fossils. 



The low alluvial district of Romney marshes now skirts the seashore, to near 

 Winchelsea ; this town and Rye being situated on mounds of Wealden strata, that 

 rise through the silt of the surrounding marsh lands. 



We now pass along the eastern extension of the Wealden denudation on the Sussex 

 coast; the Wealden sands and sandstones, with alternating clays and shales, con- 

 stituting the range of cliffs that stretches, with but little interruption, from the east of 

 Hastings to Bexhill; and in which the usual fossils occur in considerable abundance. 



Accumulations of shingle now bound the bay formed by Pevensey levels, which 

 is guarded by numerous martello towers, and the Wealden strata are wholly con- 

 cealed. Near Southbourn, on the north of the South Downs, the Greensand, Gait, 

 and Firestone, reappear ; and are surmounted by the White chalk, which abruptly 

 rises into the promontory of Beachy Head. A bold line of chalk cliffs, interrupted 

 only by a few valleys, through which the rivers from the interior discharge their 

 waters into the sea, now stretches along the coast towards Brighton ; where, to the 

 extent of three or four miles, the cliffs consist of detritus, containing bones of 

 elephants, whales, horses, deer, and other mammalia. At the embouchure of the 

 river Ouse, which flows into the sea from Lewes, the chalk cliffs forming the western 

 headland of Newhaven harbour, are capped by tertiary eocene strata. 



To the west of Brighton, the coast is for the most part low ; the foundation rock 

 of the district, the chalk, seldom rising into view ; and thick beds of alluvial cover- 

 ing, with eocene strata beneath, form the tract on the south of the Downs, through 

 western Sussex, and the adjacent maritime district of Hampshire. 



The Sussex coast at Bognor, is skirted by a few low rocks of calciferous sandstone, 

 abounding in eocene tertiary shells : and in Bracklesham bay, a bank of London 

 clay and sand has yielded numerous organic remains of great interest. 



We now sail round the eastern termination of the Isle of Wight, and perceive on 

 the north the tertiary strata in Whitecliff bay. abutting against the vertical chalk 

 of Culver Cliff. Rounding the promontory, we enter Sandown bay, where the 

 Wealden beds rise in an anticlinal position from under the cretaceous strata. The 

 ruinous chalk escarpment of the Undercliff is next passed, and we enter another 

 bay of the Wealden, at Brixton, Brook, and Compton; and again meet with bold 

 precipices of chalk at Freshwater Gate and the Needles; and vertical eocene strata 

 in Alum Bay. 



Pursuing our westward course, we see the distant coast of Hampshire, by Hord- 



* Through an oversight, the term "Norfolk" has been affixed as a synonym to 

 the Red Crag, in page 224; but Mr. Charlesworth informs me, that neither the Red 

 nor Coralline Crag occurs in any part of the county of Norfolk. 



