114 



H. KEEPING AND E. B. TAWNEY ON THE BEDS AT 



by Yon Kouen in 1864, and by Dr. Duncan for the corals in 1866, 

 whose work is not in any way affected by any thing in the present 

 essay. "We have merely striven to prevent the beds in the Isle of 

 "Wight and the New Forest being thrown again into confusion, and 

 the accurate work of E. Forbes and the Geological Survey being 

 rejected on such insufficient grounds as have been recently put 

 forward. 



abundant in that rich zone, a few inches thick, in the Whitley-Eidge railway- 

 cutting. 



At the time of obtaining the Eoydon fossils in the Edwards collection, one 

 of the authors sank a pit to the base of these beds, and they were found lying 

 immediately on the freshwater Lower Headon clays, the Brockenhurst zone 

 being absent ; the latter has apparently thinned out here, as the Eoydon zone 

 itself thins out a little further west. 



Of the White-Cliff- Bay beds we are disposed to place in the Eoydon zone all 

 those between the " Yenus-bed " clays of the Geological Survey Vertical Section 

 and the lowest two feet of sandy clays lying immediately on the eroded surface 

 of the freshwater Lower Headon, which said bed we have described above as the 

 " Brockenhurst zone." The Eoydon zone will thus include the 42 feet of yellow 

 and green sands with ironstone-nodules, of which the chief fossil is Psammobia 

 eestuarina ( = Sanguinolaria Hollowaysii of the Geological Survey Section), also 

 the remaining 12 feet of beds described in the legend as " brown clay," but 

 which in their unweathered condition are slate-colour to greenish grey. 



We had unfortunately not sufficient opportunity to work out the fauna com- 

 pletely ; but such fossils as we found induce us to parallel these beds with those 

 of the Eoydon brick-pit. The lithological character of these lower beds, as seen 

 below low-water mark at equinoctial tide, is singularly like the clayey sands of 

 the Eoydon brick-yard, while their chief fossils are the Psammobia, lying in the 

 natural position of life, and Cardita deltoidea. At some future time we hope 

 to work out the fauna more completely. 



At Outwalk hill, Lyndhurst, both the Brockenhurst and Eoydon zones occur. 

 In the pits which one of the authors sank in obtaining fossils for Mr. Edwards 

 and others from this locality, the Brockenhurst zone was found lying, as usual, 

 immediately on the freshwater clays of the Lower Headon. 



Hence we may divide the Middle Headon into three zones, distinguishable 

 easily by fossils (though, of course, many species are common to all three), viz. 

 the Brockenhurst, the Eoydon, and the Venus-bed or Headon-Hill zone. The 

 percentage of Barton forms diminishes as we ascend in the series. 



