78 On the P/iosphoric Strata of the Chalk Formation. 
place was indicated by Dr. Fitton. p. 145), there is an insulated 
outlier of the lower part ol the gault, where, at its junction with 
the sand, is a very rich bed of fossils. This spot of land a few 
years since was waste common ; it was enclosed, and is now occu- 
pied by a labourer. It was always considered to be a piece of 
worthless unreclaimable land. It has been well trenched up, and 
the occupier collected some of the fossils, which he pounded 
to pieces and strewed the fragments over the land. It is now 
sown with wheat, which presents a very flourishing appearance. 
On the west of the town, and on the north side of the Southamp- 
ton road, leading to Benlley, the only opportunity afforded to 
examine the subsoil are some deep ditches and water- worn gullies ; 
but here, at the junction of the two strata, the fossil beds are 
always found. On the opposite or south side of the River Wey, 
above the new church, in the village of Wrecklesham, there is 
an outcropping of the gault, below which are some very conspi- 
cuous beds of phosphates. At this place a pit has been opened 
in search of them, or, more correctly, the outcrop on the side f)f 
the hill has been worked into. There are three distinct beds of 
fossils : the first lies above the thin seam of ironstone ; it is about 
three or four feet thick, the fossils being intermingled in a soft 
matrix of sand and clay. This bed has been wholly carted away, 
as it was dug to be applied to a neighbouring field of a loose gra- 
velly texture; this was done because the fossils could only be 
obtained by the tedious process of hand-picking. It may be, 
perhaps, worth while to remark, that this portion had occasionally 
been carted on the land before, and always with marked benefit. 
This good result may be partly attributed to the facility with 
which many of these fossils decompose when exposed to the 
alternations of weather, because tlie fossils in the upper stratum 
are seldom as much indurated as those in the lower berls, and, 
being also less intermingled with sand, they contain a higher per- 
centage of pliosphoric acid. 
The position of the second bed is immediately below the iron- 
sandstone. It consists almost entirely of a conglomerate of 
fossils in a matrix of sand, which is from 3 to 18 inches thick. 
The third bed lies about 3 feet lower, and is similar in all 
respects ; occasional fossils are mingled with the intervening layer 
of sand. The fossds in all these beds possess the property of 
binding the sand together like masses of indurated mortar, the 
pliosphate of lime acting as a cement. 
From the second bed a solid lump of the conglomerate weighing 
60 lbs. was taken ; which, after being broken up and sifted, and 
the fossils washed, yielded 35 per cent, of them. The whole of 
the fossils, powdered, but not dried, gave, on analysis — 
