44 
LENHAM BEDS. 
be referred to the Lower London Tertiaries. Mr. Bristow also 
was disposed to class the beds as Eocene.* 
Prof. A. Von Koenen, after an examination of the specimens in 
the collections of Prof Prestwich and of the Geological Survey, was 
of opinion that the fossils were of Pliocene age,t in which view 
he seems to have been supported by S. P. Woodward. 
Messrs. Cogels and V an Ertborn, who have made a special study 
of the Antwerp Crag, in 1882 expressed the opinion that the 
Lenham ironstone was of Diestian age.J At that time 1 did 
not feel prepared to agree with them, having only been able to 
examine badly preserved fossils, and having also found in the 
Survey collection a piece of ironstone containing undoubted 
Eocene species. How it happened that this Eocene ironstone 
came to be mixed with the material from Lenham I am unable 
to learn, but apparently it has been placed in the same tray to 
show the lithological resemblance of the two beds, and not being 
labelled, has afterwards been taken to belong to the same series. 
Subsequent research at Lenham has not yielded a single Eocene 
fossil. 
As the age of the deposits still seemed very uncertain, it was 
necessary for the purpose of this Memoir to re-examine the iron¬ 
stones capping the Downs between Folkestone and Maidstone. 
The result of this examination was thoroughly to confirm Prof. 
Prestwich’s view of the Pliocene age of the beds near Lenham ;§ 
but it does not necessarily follow that all the outliers similarly 
placed on the escarpment of the Downs are of the same age. The 
undoubtedly Pliocene sands of Lenham and Harrtetsham will there¬ 
fore be described first. Afterwards the more doubtful deposits 
extending eastward and westward will be noticed. 
Fig. 8. 
Chalk-pit at Lenham. 
* Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc., vol. xxii. p. 553. (1866.) 
t On the Belgian Tertiaries. Geol. Mag., vol. iv. p. 501. (1867.) 
j Note sur les sables ferrugineux des Downs du Nord. Bull. Soc. Malacolog. 
Belg., vol. xvii. pp. 43-45. 
§ The Pliocene Deposits of North-Western Europe (C. Reid). Nature vol, 
xxxiv. p. 341. (1886.) 
