TERTIARY FORMATIONS. 
45 
boiirliood of Paris. Insular portions of these strata 
have siihsecpiently been noticed in numerous local- 
ities of tlie English chalk ; and the facts already 
known, are sufficient to warrant the conclusion, 
that contemporaneous deposits are extensively 
distributed tliroughout the globe. * 
Of the strata which exist above the chalk, 
traces are jierceptible in many localities of Sussex, 
and the adjoining counties ; so numerous, indeed, 
are the proofs of their having formerly extended 
very far beyond the limits generally assigned to the 
Isle of Wight basin, that it seems evident, either 
that the basins of London and Hampshire were 
united, previously to the last disjilacement of the 
chalk, and its superincumbent strata, or that there 
were many hollows or basins on the surface of the 
chalk, which received the sedimentary deposits of 
the tertiary seas. The flat maritime district, which 
extends from near Worthing to Bracklesham Bay, 
and from thence into Hampshire, is composed of 
clay, sand, brick-earth, gravel, See . ; and at Chimting 
Castle, near Seaford, and Castle Hill, near New- 
haven, outlying portions of the same series of beds 
remain in situ. These strata are supposed to have 
belonged to the Isle of Wight basin. To obtain a 
* Even in North America, tertiary beds are found over a vast extent 
of country, and their fossil shells vie in beauty, numbers, and interest, 
witli those of Europe. Dr. Morton, Mr. Say, Mr. Conrad, and other 
American savans, have pursued the inquiry with so much zeal, talent, 
and success, that even a work expressly devoted to the tertiary shells 
of Nortli America has just appeared. It contains beautiful and accu- 
rate figures ; and will be of the highest interest and importance to the 
European geologist. It appears in monthly numbers ; and may be ob- 
tained of Mr. O. Rich, American bookseller. Red Lion Square, Holborn. 
