LOWER CHALK—ISLE OE WIGHT. 
89 
ft. 
"oS 
o 
t -I 
a> 
£ 
o 
' Grey marl, hard and firm, but weathering into platy 
pieces - -- -- - - 4 
Rather hard white chalk, apparently without fossils, in 
massive blocks ------ about 90 
Greyish-white chalk, in courses divided by layers of 
^ marly chalk, but the courses are less strongly marked 
than those below — Scaphites cequalis and other 
fossils ------ about 40 
Grey chalk in alternating hard and marly courses. 
v Am. [, Schloenh .] varians common throughout - 55 
in. 
6 
0 
0 
0 
The actual base is not seen, but the Chloritic Marl occurs in the 
lane adjoining the pit, and there is probably not more than a thick¬ 
ness of 10 or 15 feet between this and the base of the quarry section. 
Passing to the southern part of the island, many small exposures 
of the lower beds of this stage will be found round the borders of the 
outlying mass which caps the Upper Greensand, and also in the 
fallen masses which lie on the Underdid: or along the southern 
shore. 
In 1880 one of us saw a good section in a quarry near Jolliff's 
Farm at Luccombe ; this showed alternating beds of hard, compact, 
grey chalk and soft shaly marl, with many fossils in the 
hard bands, such as Turrilites costatus , Am. [ Acanth .] Mantelli , 
Baculites baculoides, Scaphites cequalis , and Inoceramus latus (d’Orb). 
About 16 feet of these beds were seen, and in the roadway leading to 
the quarry were beds of darker grey, rather hard sandy or gritty 
chalk, with Am. [ Schloenb .] varians, Plicatula gurgitis, Rhynchonella 
mantelliana, and pieces of brown phosphate. This horizon is 
probably not far above the Chloritic Marl. 
The lower part of the Chalk Marl, with the Chloritic Marl at its 
base, may be examined at the top of St. Lawrence Shute, and again 
at the top of Gore cliff, above South View House. More than 50 feet 
of the alternating hard and soft beds are exposed at St. Lawrence, 
and about 41 feet at Gore cliff. Many fossils were collected bv 
Mr. Rhodes at these localities, 
Brook Shute is another place where the zone of Ammonites various- 
may be examined, about 100 feet of chalk being there exposed above 
the Chloritic Marl. 
The only other complete section of the Lower Chalk is that in 
Compton Bay, which was measured by Mr. Hill in 1897, and 
found to be as follows : — 
ft. 
Hard smooth grey marl, passing down rapidly into white 
chalk (sub-zone of Act. plenus ) ----- 9 
Greyish-white chalk in well-marked courses, divided by seams 
of marl ; Holaster subglobosus and Hoi. trecensis ? - 90 
Grey chalk in alternating soft and harder courses ; light grey 
above, bluish-grey below ------- 40 
Grey chalk with many small brown phospliatic nodules - - 14 
Bluish-grey slightly glauconitic chalk.10 
Chloritic Marl (see p. 86) -. K h 
About 161 
