Some few words must be said about them. The highest beds, known as the Hunting Bridge Beds, occur in Copse St. Leonards, not far from the Fritham Road.[1] In a descending order, separated by thirty or forty feet of unfossiliferous clays, come the Shepherd's Gutter Beds, to be found about half-a-mile lower down the King's Gairn Brook; and below them, again, separated by forty or fifty feet of unfossiliferous clays, and situated somewhat more than a mile lower down the same stream, rise the Brook Beds. Still farther down, too, from some shells very lately discovered at Cadenham, it is supposed that the Cerithium Bed of Stubbington and Bracklesham Bay will be found, but this is not yet ascertained.
The Hunting Bridge Beds I have never examined, but subjoin their measurements, as also their most typical shells,[2]
- ↑ All these beds are shown in the large map by the word "Fossils," there not being space enough to particularize each bed.
- ↑ These beds were discovered by Mr. Fisher in 1861, and for the following measurements I am indebted to Mr. Keeping. We find, about one hundred yards in a south-eastward direction from the point where the footpath from Brook to Fritham crosses the stream, (1) the Coral Bed, the equivalent of that at Stubbington, full of crushed Dentalia and Serpulæ, six inches. (2) Sandy light blue clay, with very few fossils, seven feet. (3) Verdigris-green and slate-coloured clay, characterized near the top by a new species of Dentalium, Serpulorbis Morchii (?), and Spondylus rarispina. The other typical shells are Voluta Maga, several species of Arca and Corbula gallica, five feet. It is in this bed that large roots of trees and ferns are found.
No persons, however, I should suppose, would think of examining any of these beds without first consulting Mr. Fisher's most valuable paper on the Bracklesham Beds in the Proceedings of the Geological Society, May, 1862. And I should further most strongly advise them, if they wish to become practically acquainted with the beds, to procure the assistance of Mr. Keeping, of Freshwater, in the Isle of Wight.
I may here further mention that a well is at the present moment being sunk at Emery Down, and which, as I learn from Mr. Keeping, gives the
