NOTES AND QUERIES. 
Ill 
shells; the characteristic one of which is Tholadomija cuneata. This sand- 
stone does not effervesce with acids, except in portions which show evident 
traces of shells. Beneath this at / we have grey or blue marl, the upper 
portion immediately under the sandstone being mostly composed of a green 
sand aboundijig in shells much like Cuprim Morrisii. Tliis rock passes into a 
tenaceous grey plastic clay, very hard, and possessing a complete conchoidal 
fracture. Tliis grey marl is very distinct in coloiu' and appearance from the 
green sandstone above ; it abounds in lignite andiron pyrites. The depth of 
the Beakesbourne cutting is about thirty-five feet. The average depth of stratum 
/ is about eighteen feet, of e about ten feet. 
The fossds found in the green sandstone, e, consist of Pholadomya cwieata, 
Tholadoraya Koninckii, Cucullea decussatUy or C. cnissatina ; small Corbula f ? ^, 
Cytherea, Cyprina, Turritella, Natica, Glycimeris and Panopcea in casts ; fossil 
fruits ; several casts of Pholadomya, differing from most akeady described ; 
some Echinanthus, or Echinoderm. 
In the grey marl, F, were found Pholadomya margaritacea (?), Uostellaria, 
Cyprina Morrisii, Natica, Pinna, Tellina ; also a supposed Venericardia. 
Several curiously cylindrical bodies resembling Calamites, lobsters' claws, &c.* 
From the organic remains found in these cuttings we should have no difficulty 
in referring them to the Thanet sands of Prestwich, bat they seem to differ in 
lithological character, and approach very closely to those sections described 
by Sir Charles Lyell, as occurring at Tournay, under the term of Glauconite, 
and grey marl, and classed in Belgium as the Lower Landinian. It has been 
surmised that these formations in Belgium were represented in Britain by the 
Thanet sands; and these sections I have described would seem to warrant the 
conclusion. I have attentively read Mr. Prestwich's paper on the Thanet 
sands ; but do not find that he has described any portion which exactly corres- 
ponds with these sections. He speaks of the Thanet sands as to their lithologic 
character, and describes them as " consisting essentially of a base of a light- 
coloured quartose sand, mixed in its lower beds more especially with more or 
less argillaceous matter, but never passing into distinct clay."' The argillaceous 
matter is usually light-coloured, and does not therefore colour the sands, merely 
giving a certain amount of cohesion, so that when dug the beds are sometimes 
semi-mdurated. In some places moreover, the clay with which the sands are 
mixed is dark coloured, as m the lower beds at Pegwell and Herne Bay." 
The sands described as dark coloured by Mr. Prestwich, are for the most 
part not accessible, being below low-water, or obscured by recent deposits ; 
and it must be remembered that the sands at Eeculver are represented as 
being seventy feet down to the chalk, though only twenty-five feet of them are 
exposed. It would thus be seen that Mr. Prestwich's description would only 
refer to the upper part, and this the least considerable. However this may be, 
I believe that there is much yet to be learnt of this important geological forma- 
tion, and these cuttings I have been describing may reward the search of the 
diligent geologist. Before concluding, I may add that I have had the oppor- 
tunity of observing the lower beds of the Thanet sands, having sunk a well at 
Stourmouth, passing through the Thanet sands do^NTi to the chalk, wliich I 
reached at a depth of one hundred and forty feet from the surface, and a depth 
of one hundred feet from the lowest bed of sand ; so that this dark coloured 
blue clay, which I term the basement bed of the Thanet sand is of considerable 
* It is not to be supposed that this is anything like a complete list of the fossils found in 
these cuttings, but most of those I have had an opportunity of examining ; and the diflSculty 
attending the correct determination of species from casts and shells in which the hinge is 
not exposed, renders the correct naming of these specimens, by so inexperienced geologist as 
I am, a matter of great difficulty. I, therefore, with great diffidence give the names as an 
approximation of the truth.— G. D. 
