266 Professor E. Forbes on 



characteristic fossils are very distinct, and the highest bed of 

 the series is marine. These beds prove to be identical with 

 the Limburg or Tongrien beds of Belgium and with the Gres 

 de Fontainebleau series in France. We thus get a definite 

 horizon for comparison with the Continent, and are enabled 

 to shew, that instead of our English series of eocene ter- 

 tiaries being incomplete in its upper stages, as compared with 

 those of France and Belgium, it is really the most complete 

 section in Europe, probably in the world. We are enabled 

 by it to correct the nomenclature used on the Continent, and 

 to prove that the so-called lower Miocene formations of 

 France and Germany are in true sequence with the Eocene 

 strata, and are linked with them both stratagraphically and 

 by their organic contents. We are also enabled to refer, with 

 great probability, the so-called Miocene tertiaries of the Medi- 

 terranean basin, of Spain and Portugal, — those of the well- 

 known Maltese type — to their true position in the series, and 

 to place them on a horizon with the Tongrien division of the 

 Eocenes. As these Maltese beds are unconformable, and evi- 

 dently long subsequent to the deposition of the great nummu- 

 litic formation, we are enabled to assign an approximate limit 

 to the estimate of the latest age of that important series. From 

 well-marked analogies we get at a probable date even for the 

 Australian Tertiaries. Thus the deciphering of the true struc- 

 ture of a small portion of the British Islands can throw r fresh 

 light upon the conformation of vast and far apart regions. 



The peculiar undulatory contour of the surface of the fluvio- 

 marine portion of the Isle of Wight is due to the gentle rol- 

 ling of these beds in two directions, one parallel with the 

 strata of the chalk ridge, and the other at right angles to it. 

 The valleys and hills running northwards to the sea depend 

 upon the synclinal and anteclinal curves of the latter system of 

 rolls, a fact hitherto unnoticed, and the non-recognition of 

 which has probably been one cause of the erroneous interpre- 

 tation of the structure of the Isle of Wight hitherto received. 

 The truncations of these curves along the coast of the Solent 

 exhibit at intervals beautiful and much neglected sections, 

 well worthy of careful study. There is one of these sections 

 near Osborne. Her Majesty's residence stands upon a geo- 

 logical formation hitherto unrecognized in Britain. Near 



