HEADON HILL A2s T D COLWELL BAY IN THE ISLE OF WIGHT. 109 



bed, but of Brockenhurst beds ; but though we have not sufficiently 

 worked out this fauna, we may say that we are satisfied that they 

 belong to a lower zone than any of the marine beds at Colwell Bay 

 or Headon Hill, the Middle Headon being more fully developed at 

 Whitecliff Bay than elsewhere. 



Brockenliurst Zone at Whitecliff Bay. — The succeeding 14 feet 

 are the equivalents of the Brockenhurst beds ; the lowest two feet 

 we sball call the Brockenhurst zone ; the remainder of the thickness is 

 not nearly so rich in species, and their grouping, as well as the litho- 

 logical character, is more like that of the Roy don beds. 



At the time the Survey section was made, the interesting bed at 

 Brockenhurst had not been discovered nor its fauna described; 

 hence such Brockenhurst fossils as were found in this zone here 

 were not rightly determined (thus in the Survey section we must 

 read Cardita deltoidea, Sow., for C. acuticosta), or specific names 

 were withheld from them. Subsequent observers * have recognized 

 the Brockenhurst fauna in this lowest bed. As we have obtained 

 more fossils from it than previous observers, we have embodied our 

 results in a separate column in the lists at the end of this essay ; 

 that column contains nothing except what we have collected with 

 our own hands this summer from the lowest two feet t, lying on an 

 eroded surface of the freshwater Lower Headon. Comparison of this 

 list with the fauna from Brockenhurst itself will convince most, we 

 think, of the perfect equivalence of the zone in the island and in 

 the forest, while its position at Whitecliff Bay shows that it is at 

 the base of the Middle Headon. 



Brockenhurst Zone in the New Forest. — The greater part of the 

 fossils from Brockenhurst were collected by the hands of one of 

 the authors, and thence were dispersed into various public and 

 private collections. They were obtained during the doubling of the 

 line and widening of the cutting at Whitley Ridge, near Brocken- 

 hurst t, about twenty-three years ago. During this work he had 

 the advantage of seeing more of the beds than any other geologist. 

 He found the rich Brockenhurst zone (which varied from a few 

 inches to nearly a foot) lying immediately upon the freshwater Lower 

 Headon ; while about half a mile up the line, near the bridge by 

 Lady-Cross Lodge, the Middle Headon Yenus-bed was seen, followed 

 by the freshwater Upper Headon beds above, the beds having a very 

 gentle dip up the line or easterly §. It is evident that the succession 



* Videlicet Yon Konen, Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc. vol. xx. p. 98 ; Eev. O. Fisher, 

 Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc. vol. xviii. p. 67, footnote ; Mr. T. Coclrington, Quart. 

 Journ. Geol. Soc. vol. xxiv. p. 519 ; Dr. Duncan, Pal. Soc, ' Fossil Corals,' i. 

 p. 40 (1865). 



t In the Edwards collection the label "Whitecliff Bay" includes many 

 Venus-bed forms, indeed Lower and Upper Headon, or it may be any thing 

 from the London Clay to the Bembridge Marls ; there is therefore good reason 

 for not allowing this collection to stand as evidence of what is found in the 

 Brockenhurst zone at Whitecliff Bay. 



I The railway-cutting at Brockenhurst {op. cit. p. 152) refers to the same 

 spot as Whitley Eidge. 



§ We visited the New-Forest localities together this summer, and found the 

 Whitley-Eidge cutting entirely grassed over (the rich zone was below the level 



