59 
A singular deposit bearing upon this question exists upon 
the shores of the Selsey Peninsula, a few miles south of 
Chichester in Sussex, discovered by the late Mr. Dixon, and 
mentioned in his volume on the Geology of Sussex, and 
examined from time to time, as opportunity offered, by 
various observers. Situated between tide marks it is rarelv 
«/ 
accessible, so much sand and shingle overlying it derived 
from the waste of the cliffs which recede nearly 6 feet yearly, 
that it is only by piecemeal the general structure of the 
beds can be made out. 
The chief interest of the deposit centres in the rich and 
unique fauna, of which the appended lists exhibit the result of 
some 25 years’ research, numbering over 350 species in nearly 
all classes of organic life, the series exhibiting a purely 
southern facies, free from any admixture of northern or boreal 
forms, and therefore lequiriug peculiar environments to 
account for their accumulation. 
I may here briefly refer to Mr. Godwin-Austen’s paper 
(Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc., Loud., 1855), in which he sketches 
out the lie of the strata. His diagram gives a shelly deposit, 
the “ mud deposit ” of Dixon, as reposing upon a red freshwater 
gravel, and covered by a stiff yellow clay containing ice- 
transported erratics of large size, derived from an area in the 
English Channel now destroyed, this in its turn being over¬ 
spread with the flint gravels that are so prevalent on the south 
coast. 
The “ mud deposit ” here referred to, I find after repeated 
examinations, resolves itself into more than one aspect. It 
may be premised that the whole of the foieshore being covered 
with debris and constantly shifting, the details are presented 
in very fragmentary portions, but I have noted them sufficiently 
for the purpose required. 
The extreme west of the section consists of some indurated 
masses of Eocene Sands, penetrated by numerous crypts bored 
by Pholas crispcita , the shells occasionally still remaining in 
situ. To the east and having a considerable extension inland, 
a stiff yellow chalky clay rises in hummocks above the sand. 
This contains but few traces of life, and only those that are 
proper to shallow marine flats; such as the common cockle, 
