IRONSTONE OF THE WEALDS. 



193 



direction, the sandstone forms a range of hills of considerable eleva- 

 tion. Crowborough beacon, the loftiest part of the range, attains the 

 height of more than 800 feet. 



It is true that nowhere in Kent or Sussex do we obtain a section 

 of strata on which the Wealden beds rest. At Lulworth Cove, in 

 Dorsetshire, where a portion of these beds has been traced, they ap- 

 pear to have covered the upper or Portland oolites. Some portion 

 of the same beds has been observed in the Isle of Wight ; but they 

 have not been found in the midland counties of England. The 

 ferruginous character of some of the beds occasioned them to be, 

 for a long time, mistaken for the iron sand belonging to the green sand 

 formation, hereafter to be described. The name of Hastings or iron 

 sand. Weald clay, and Petworih and Purbec limestone, have been 

 given to different parts of this accumulation of sand, sandstone, and 

 argillaceous limestone, to which the name of the Wealden or Sussex 

 beds may be collectively applied. The clay called the Weald clay 

 may be regarded as the principal member of this formation, to which 

 the sandstone, calciferous grit, and limestone, are subordinate ; for 

 though the sand and sandstone form lofty cliffs on the coast, they al- 

 ternate with marl and clay, and rest on beds of clay.* We shall 

 therefore describe the Weald clay in conjunction with the beds of 

 limestone and sandstone. The clay is a bluish or brownish tena- 

 cious clay, sometimes indurated and slaty. Thin beds of limestone, 

 separated by seams of clay, occur in different parts of the Weald 

 clay : they have been known for furnishing a stone for architectural 

 purposes, called Sussex marble, and Petworth marble. Some of 

 the more compact varieties are sufficiently hard to receive a good 

 polish. These beds abound with shells of the Paludina, and crusts 

 of the Cypris fabaf , and other fresh-water sliells. Masses of cal- 

 ciferous sandstone, nearly resembling the well-known sandstone of 

 Fontainbleau, occur in various parts of the Wealden, both in what 

 may be called the Weald clay, and the lower beds of sand and sand- 

 stone, called Hastings' sand. The Hastings' sandstone is composed 

 of yellowish or whitish grains of sand, very loosely adhering, alter- 

 nating with beds of clay, and with a small sandstone conglomerate, 

 containing rounded fragments of bones, and scales of fishes. Over 

 this bed there occurs, in some parts of the Weald (particularly at 

 Tilgate Forest), a bed of coarse conglomerate, consisting of quartz 



* Below the Castle rock at Hastings, boring-s were made in 1829; they were 

 chiefly in clay. The clay from the depth of 120 feet, which I examined, was a 

 whitish-grey pipe-clay. The borings were made to obtain water for the Pelham 

 Baths, which was found at the depth of 260 feet, of a good quality, and rose nearly 

 to the surface. 



t The Cypris faba is a crustaceous animal in a roundish shell or case, not much 

 larger than a grain of millet. The living species are aquatic monoculi, which 

 swim in fresh water, and deposit their eggs on the leaves of aquatic plants, or m 

 the mud. The paludina is a fresh-water univalve shelL 



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