638 AIR. J. V. ELSDEN ON THE SUPERFICIAL GEOLOGY OP 



this section with some care, in company with Mr. P. B. Head. 

 About 8 feet of stratified gravel, consisting of waterworn Wealden 

 fragments, with intercalated beds of sand, occur in some pits near 

 Amy's Mill Bridge, at no great distance from the river, and only 20 

 or 30 feet above its level. After a careful search as many as seven 

 angular fragments of flint were found, so thin and sharp at the 

 edges as to render it improbable that they had ever been transported 

 very far by ordinary river-action. A few of these angular flints 

 may be found lying on the surface of the ground in the fields to the 

 south of Amy's Mill Farm. This occurrence of flints on the flanks 

 of the central dome is extremely rare. Murchison, in fact, states 

 that flints do not occur in this portion of the Arun valley. 



During the remainder of its course through the Weald-Clay 

 country there are few deposits of any remarkable extent beyond 

 loams, sometimes containing concretionary ironstone, which is often 

 ploughed up, and was originally smelted. Between Budgwick and 

 the Lower Greensand escarpment these loams occur on both sides of 

 the river, greatly improving the agricultural value of the land. In 

 these loams angular fragments of chert are found in great abund- 

 ance, together with some chalk flints. 



To the south of the Lower Greensand escarpment, however, there 

 are extensive deposits of angular gravel, resting chiefly upon the 

 Lower Greensand, but occasionally also upon the Gault and Upper 

 Greensand formations. These beds appear to consist of two distinct 

 kinds. In the first place, there is a true river-gravel, which occurs 

 in patches along the course of the Bother between Pulborough and 

 Cowdry Park ; but this lower river-gravel is sometimes difficult to 

 separate from other extensive patches occurring at much greater 

 heights above the present level of the river. 



Sections of the lower gravel are to be seen in several places in the 

 railway-cutting between Coates and Pulborough. At Pittleworth 

 from 5 to 10 feet of gravelly loam is seen, containing whole and 

 broken flints, both angular and subangular, together with ironstone 

 and chert, and occasionally a rolled pebble of flint. The junction of 

 the Lower Greensand is often marked by the presence of large 

 masses of ironstone ; but stratification is only very slightly indicated. 

 In some places the gravel has intercalated beds, 4 or 5 feet thick, of 

 sandy loam, with only a few flints. Prom the abundance of flints 

 on the surface this bed of gravel appears to extend over the whole 

 area between Coates Common and Coldwaltham to above the 100 feet 

 contour. At Hardham a pit shows about 6 feet of sandy gravel, 

 with very marked stratification, the beds being sometimes violently 

 contorted, and the same gravel is seen again at Hardham Tunnel. 

 All these gravels agree in containing stones of very different sizes, 

 from large unbroken flints to very small, sharp, shattered frag- 

 ments, and chert and ironstone are very abundant. On the north 

 bank of the Bother this gravel is again seen at Lower Pittle worth, 

 where I procured a fragment of bone. On the very summit of 

 Pittleworth Common, above the 100 feet contour, there are several 

 pits showing good sections of gravel with a rude and contorted 



