"About midway between Bracklesham Barn and the Thorney coast-guard station, a series of patches of a deposit of chalk-flints was exposed; the first of these was nearly at low-water-mark, and the remainder of them ran, at short distances from each other, in a diagonal line towards the coast, nearly in the direction of a straight line drawn from their western extremity to the Thorney station-houses. Apparently, this stratum of flints has not, at any time, exceeded eight inches or a foot in thickness; they are, indeed, so thinly scattered, as rarely to occur piled upon each other: very few of them have suffered from attrition, and the greater part retain their original form and whitened surface. They are imbedded in the same light green marly sand which I before described as occurring at the bottom of the London Clay in the neighbourhood of the little chine near Bracklesham Barn. Amongst the flints there are numerous remains of the roots of trees, in the state of soft bog-wood; which indicate that this portion of the strata has been very thinly covered by the superimposed clay.
"Upon one of the bouldered flints, firmly imbedded in the marly sand. I found the most interesting of the valuable series of fossils which I had the good fortune to obtain during this excursion, namely, a fine specimen of Astræa[786] attached to the upper and exposed surface of a flint."
[786] Astræa, a species of coral; see p. 262.
As to the accommodation that may be procured near this interesting geological locality, Mr. Bowerbank informs me that homely fare can be obtained at the little inn at Bracklesham, but there is only one spare bed. At Selsea, about six miles distant, there is a much better inn.
NOTES FOR AN EXCURSION TO THE TERTIARY STRATA OF THE ISLE OF WIGHT.
[See Geological Excursions round the Isle of Wight, and along the adjacent Coasts of Dorsetshire, by the Author. 8vo. 3d edit. With Prefatory Note by T. Rupert Jones. 1854. Bohn. London.]
Land at Cowes; examine the blocks of fresh-water limestone along the shore, which abound in shells. Drive to Alum Bay (Wond. p. 241), taking Calbourn in your route, where there are quarries of the fresh-water limestone, with innumerable casts of Paludina, Helix, Bulimus, &c. Put up at Groves’ Hotel, on the summit of the hill, commanding a glorious view of Alum Bay, with the Hampshire coast, and the Isle of Purbeck on the right, and Portland Island looming in the remote distance; and on the left, the vertical cliffs of Chalk, and the Needles. The pathway that leads down to the sea-shore traverses a chasm, separating Headon-hill on the right, from Alum Bay on the left; in the former, fresh-water shells—in the vertical beds of clay, in the latter, marine shells—may be obtained in great abundance and variety.
If you land at Ryde, the small quarries at Binstead are worthy of constant research, for the chance of mammalian remains (see p. 791).
The following extract from the splendid work of Sir Henry Englefield on the Isle of Wight describes certain geological changes still in progress on the shore near Ryde, that are well deserving the visitor’s attention.