I 76 THE STORY OF THE EARTH. 



mal Paluothtriiim which in some ways approxi- 

 mated in structure to existing tapirs. 



Where this limestone caps Headon Hill it is 

 about 15 feet thick. The Bembridge marls rest 

 upon it successively in the section at Hempstead. 

 They are grouped into a number of sandy beds 

 and shaly clays, full of estuarine shells, among 

 which are the genera Melania and Melanopsis y 

 which alternate with beds containing Cyrena and 

 other bands in which the shells are of fresh water 

 ies. 



The top of the marls is the remarkable thin 

 deposit known as the Black Band which is usually 

 grouped with the overlying Hempstead series. 



The Hempstead Beds. 



Hempstead Hill lies to the east of Yarmouth 

 in the [sle «»f Wight, on the shore of the Solent. 

 It is formed of about 170 feet of fresh-water and 

 estuarine marls, capped by a marine stratum. 

 The marls have a general resembla; the 



.bridge marls. The Black Hand at the b 

 is about two feet of clay, coloured with vegetable 

 remains, among which Sequoia and water-lilies 



have been recognised, together with the teeth oi 

 Hum and other mammals and remains of 

 I and crocodiles. It is an old terrestrial 

 on which rest, first, the lower marls with 

 Melania muricata; secondly, the middle marls 

 with Cerithium hi; and thirdly, the upper 



\tflium plicatum. At the top are tin- 

 's which contain several marine shells 



to the estuarine forms, among them 



/ ila, .md a 



istic mammal of these 



