WHITE ROCK, HASTINGS. 
197 
stone, of a laminated structure, liaving the surface 
of the lam hue deeply furrowed ; it reposes on a 
dark-coloured shale, which forms the base of the 
cliffs.* 
A few yards behind White Rock, a bank of 
ferruginous sand and clay is cut through by the 
road ; the strata are highly inclined, dijiping to the 
west, at an angle of ^5°. This mass probably be- 
longs to the uppermost portion of the series. 
A diluvial valley intervenes between the AVhite 
Rock and the west cliff', where the ruins of the 
castle are situated. Idle highest point is about £()0 
feet high ; and in 1827, hiic section of the cliff was 
formed by the labourers employed in carrying on the 
improvements at Pelham Place. It consisted of, — 
1. (Uppermost bed), t White sand and friable 
sandstone, with veins of ferruginous sand — the 
Worth beds — about 100 feet thick. 
2. Loam, shale, clay, and sand, 30 feet. 
3. Clay, approaching to fuller’s earth, enclosing 
undulating veins of lignite, 10 feet. 
1. Soft sandstone in horizontal lavers, alter- 
nating with clay and shale ; contains traces of 
lignite, 10 feet. 
The lignite in this place corresponds in every 
* The White rock, which formed so interesting and picturesque an 
object, was being broken up at my last visit to Hastings. It was evi- 
dently but a very small part of a mass of strata, which at some remote 
periotl had been separated (probably by the subsidence of the soft 
inferior beds) from the inland cliffs. At low water, reefs of rocks may 
be seen to the south-west, which partake of the same inclination as the 
strata of white rock. 
f Traces of clay ami shale, apparently situated above the Worth sands, 
were observed, iu the late excavations near the Castle j but the relative 
position of the beds couhl not be ascertained. 
o 3 
