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VIII. — On the Agricultural Relations of the Western portion of 
the Hampshire Tertiary District, and on the Agricultural Im- 
portance of the Marls of the New Forest. By Joshua Tkimmer, 
F.G.S. 
General Description of the Strata of the District. — The district 
to which the following remarks apply extends from the South- 
ampton Water nearly to Dorchester. In existing geological 
maps it is laid down as London and plastic clay. The recent 
researches of Mr. Prestwich have proved, however, that little of 
it belongs to those formations, and that the greater portion con- 
sists of sands and clays, which are the equivalents of tlie Bagshot 
sands of the London district. He has thus established the true 
place of the Bagshot sands in the tertiary series. From the 
absence in the London district of the freshwater beds of the 
Isle of Wight, this had previously been misunderstood. The 
place of the Bagshot sands is now proved to be intermediate 
between the Freshwater deposits and the London clay. The 
freshwater, or more properly fluvio-marine strata of the Isle 
of Wight, which I shall call the Upper Eocenes, cover a much 
larger area north of the Solent than is shown on any geo- 
logical map yet published. They extend from near the 
Soutliampton Water to Hordwell, on the coast, forming a tri- 
angular district in the interior, with its apex a little north of 
Lyndhurst, and traversed through' its centre by the Dorchester 
railway, which enters it near Denny Lodge, in the New Forest, 
and quits it a little west of the Christchurch station. The 
Middle Eocenes, consisting of the Upper, Middle, and Lower 
Bagshots, form a belt which surrounds tlie above triangular 
area on the east, west, and north, and which is consequently twice 
crossed by the railway. It is crossed on the east between the 
Southampton Water and Denny Lodge, before mentioned as the 
eastern commencement of the freshwater marls — on the west 
between the Christchurch station and Dorchester. With respect 
to the subdivisions of these Middle Eocenes, since the strata have 
a slight rise eastward, as well as northward and westward, the 
lower part of the Middle Bagshots (the Bracklesham sands) is 
first crossed by the railway between Southampton and Eling. 
The Barton clay, which forms their upper part, succeeds from 
Eling to the Ashurst Lodge. The Upper Bagshot sands come 
next in the order of succession, between that point and Denny 
Lodge, where they are covered by the freshwater marls. They 
emerge again from beneath these a little beyond the Christchurch 
station, and continue to the valley of the Avon, near Ringwood. 
The Barton clay crops out in the eastern escarpment of that 
valley. The Bracklesham sands have been denuded and covered 
