LOWER CRETACEOUS STRATA. 149 



beds. And fourthly, the Folkestone beds are 

 usually yellowish, unconsolidated, and appeal to 

 correspond to the ferruginous sands of Shanklin 

 in the Isle of Wight. Fuller's earth occurs at 

 many horizons in the Sandgate beds. The Hythe 

 beds occasionally contain beds of chert, derived 

 from the growth and breaking up of siliceous 

 iges Near Maidstone it has yielded boulders 

 granite, which may have been the anchor stones 

 marine plants like Fucus. Remains of terres- 

 trial plants and of Iguanodon indie ate near prox- 

 imity of the Maidstone area to land, which is 



paralleled in the [sle of Wight 



CHAP! l.k Will. 



LOWER CRE1 At \< >US SI kai a. 



Eveb since the Carboniferous period the influ- 

 ence of a dividing line extending east to west, due 



to elevation of the rocks between Worcestershire 

 and Lincolnshire, has been more or less 1 ersistent. 

 It has influenced the mineral character of strata 

 and distribution of life. It has given a distinct 

 character to the Oolitic rocks south of Banbury, 

 to that shown by the succession of rocks further 

 north. The same geographical conditions separate 

 the Neocomian rocks north and south of the land 

 barrier indicated on the south by the Purbeck and 

 Wealden n>ck>. A like physical difference is seen 

 in some of the Cretaceous rocks. 



In so far as can be judged by fossils, the change 

 from Speeton clay to Hunstanton limestone took 

 place in the middle of the Gault ; since the fossils 



