NORMAN UPPER GREENSAND OF ISLE OF WIGHT. 481 



1st. The upper portion of the section is subdivided into two parts, 

 being in fact two distinct deposits, differing materially in mineral 

 character, and almost distinctly in their organic remains ; for instance, 

 the first division contains numerous species of Ammonites, amongst 

 which the most conspicuous are A. varians, A. Mantelli, and^. Coupei 

 in all its varieties, with numerous other shells that never occur in the 

 Firestone below, or, indeed, in any other of the beds throughout 

 the series, although they are met with in the chalk-marl above, 

 to which it evidently approximates, being of a much lighter colour 

 than the beds below. It is termed the " Phosphatic marl." The organic 

 remains are for the most part water- worn, and exist in the state of 

 casts, especially the Ammonites, which are so numerous that, judging 

 from the profusion of their remains, they must have literally swarmed 

 in the sea of that period. 



2nd. At the bottom of the before-mentioned deposit, we come upon 

 a bed of fantastically- shaped nodules, varying in size from a few inches 

 in diameter to a foot, amongst which may be found the water* 

 worn remains of a gigantic bivalve, termed EadioKtes," teeth and 

 bones of Saurians, hook-shaped teeth, &c. 



Below this, again, is a thick bed of dark-green, soft sandstone, 

 readily weathered. This bed I believe to have been named the 

 *' Chloritic marl," by geologists. At the bottom of it is another layer 

 of nodules, similar in character to those above, containing also the teeth 

 and bones of saurians as well as of sharks, with other fossils, the most 

 characteristic being the Pecten orhicularis, which abounds. 



3rd. The next division consists of layers of siliceous sandstone and 

 beds of rag, alternating with beds of coarse, brittle, flinty masses, or 

 coarse chalcedony, locally termed shotterwit," which is much used for 

 the making and mending of roads, as is also the limestone or rag. It is 

 very brittle, and easily broken into square fragments ; and is almost 

 destitute of organic remains, but the large Fecten quinque-costatus is 

 sometimes, though rarely, found; but, being imbedded in a flinty 

 matrix, it is seldom extracted whole. The same shell also ranges through 

 the four alternate layers of rag and chert, but the writer has met with 

 no other fossil remains, except coniferous wood. 



4th. The next beds in descending order consist of hard, brittle 

 stone, spongy in texture, and strongly impregnated with silex, break- 

 ing, like the preceding, into square fragments. They are interspersed 



