Vol.  49.]  A  F08SILIEER0T7S  PLEISTOCENE  DEPOSIT  AT  STONE. 
325 
28.  A  fossiliferous  Pleistocene  Deposit  at  Stone,  07i  the  Hamp¬ 
shire  Coast.  By  Clement  Reid,  Esq.,  F.L.S.,  F.G.S.  (Read 
March  8th,  1893.  Communicated  by  permission  of  the  Director- 
General  of  the  Geological  Survey.) 
About  a  year  ago  I  communicated  to  this  Society  a  note  on  ‘The 
Pleistocene  Deposits  of  the  Sussex  Coast,’ 1  in  which  were  given 
some  of  the  more  important  results  brought  out  by  the  new  geolo¬ 
gical  survey  of  that  district.  It  was  suggested,  among  other  things, 
that  the  fossils  of  the  ‘  mud-deposit  ’  of  Selsey  indicated  an  inter¬ 
glacial  mild  period,  represented  also  by  some  abundantly-fossiliferous 
strata  at  West  Wittering.  The  continuation  of  the  survey  westward 
now  enables  me  to  state  that  the  same  deposit  is  found  also  in 
Hampshire,  where  it  yields  similar  fossils,  and  distinctly  underlies 
the  mass  of  the  implement-bearing  gravels  of  that  coast. 
The  new  locality  for  the  ‘  mud-deposit  ’  is  the  foreshore  at  Stone, 
three  miles  south  of  the  village  of  Pawley,  and  the  same  distance 
from  the  entrance  to  Southampton  Water  ;  it  is  consequently  about 
20  miles  west  of  the  patches  already  known.  The  mass  of  tenaceous 
Scrobicularia-claj ,  now  visible  at  Stone,  may  have  been  observed  by 
other  geologists,  but  I  can  find  no  record  of  it ;  in  all  probability, 
if  observed  at  all,  it  was  passed  by  as  being  merely  an  exposure  of 
recent  estuarine  mud  belonging  to  the  Dark  Water,  a  stream  which 
now  flows  into  the  Solent  a  quarter  of  a  mile  farther  west.  Opposite 
the  spot  where  the  clay  is  seen,  a  low  cliff  marks  the  seaward  edge 
of  the  great  gravel-plateau  of  the  Hew  Forest ;  but  this  cliff  is  so 
low,  that  at  first  sight  the  gravel  might  be  mistaken  for  a  storm- 
beach  thrown  up  by  the  sea  in  modern  times.  In  the  sheltered 
Solent  no  storm  now  throws  beach-material  to  this  height ;  yet 
from  the  stratigraphical  evidence  alone  one  could  not  feel  absolutely 
confident  as  to  the  Pleistocene  age  of  the  gravel  and  of  the  under¬ 
lying  estuarine  clay.  After  a  short  search,  however,  I  found 
the  broken  end  of  an  elephant’s  tusk  projecting  from  the  clay  and 
covered  with  seaweed.  This  discovery  showed  that  the  clay  was  a 
genuine  Pleistocene  deposit,  in  no  way  connected  with  the  modern 
river-channels,  all  of  which,  in  that  district,  are  more  recent  than  the 
gravel-plateau.  A  box  of  the  clay  was  therefore  taken  to  London  for 
examination,  and  the  result  showed  that  the  deposit  contains  a  fauna 
and  flora  identical,  so  far  as  it  goes,  with  that  of  the  upper  ‘  mud- 
deposit  ’  of  Selsey.2  The  species  obtained  were  the  following : — 
ElepJias  (portion  of  nearly 
straight  tusk). 
Helix  pulchella,  Mull. 
Melampus  myosotis,  Drap. 
Hydrobia  similis,  Drap. 
- ulvce,  Pen. 
- ventrosa,  Mont. 
Cardium  edule,  Linn. 
Scrobicularia  piper ata,  Belon. 
Ranunculus  sceleratus,  Linn. 
— —  repens ,  Linn. 
liubus  fruticosus,  Linn. 
Acer  nionspessulanum ,  Linn. 
Quercusrobur,  Linn. 
Atriplex  patula,  Linn. 
Ztannichellia  palustris,  Linn. 
Carex  riparia’l ,  Curtis. 
Thragmites. 
1  Quart.  Journ.  Geol.  Soc.  vol.  xlviii.  (1892)  p.  344. 
2  Op.  cit.  p.  355  :  No.  4  in  fig.  2  there. 
