"A great and very singular change has taken place within no very distant period of time on the shores of the Solent, near to Ryde; and which seems to be still sensibly proceeding. When Fielding, in the year 1753, was at Ryde, on his voyage to Lisbon, he describes the town as totally inaccessible by sea except at or near high-water; as the tide, on its recess, left a vast extent of mud, too soft to bear the lightest weight. This mud-bank is now entirely covered by a stratum of fine white sand, smooth and firm enough to bear wheel-carriages, and which renders the bathing at all times safe and agreeable. This bed of sand now reaches to Binstead, having covered at least two miles of the shore within the last half-century; and the inhabitants say that it is still extending to the westward. On digging through the sand, the old mud presently appears, the sand stratum being very thin. To what cause this change is owing it is difficult to guess; but it is an example of the alternation of deposits from the action of the sea, in circumstances apparently unchanged, which may afford cause for reflection to the geologist."[787]
[787] Sir H. Englefield’s Isle of Wight, p. 16.
If the visitor have leisure, he should make a tour of this interesting island, from Ryde to Shanklin and Ventnor, along the beautiful scenery of the Under Cliff, formed by the slips of the Lower Green Sand; to Black Gang Chine, and Fresh-water Bay; visiting Brook-Point (Wond. p. 378) to collect fossils from the Wealden strata on the sea-shore.
[CHAPTER XXII.]
NOTES FOR A GEOLOGICAL EXCURSION, OVER THE CHALK AND WEALDEN FORMATIONS OF THE SOUTH-EAST OF ENGLAND, FROM LONDON TO BRIGHTON, AND FROM BRIGHTON TO ROTTINGDEAN.
In travelling from London to Brighton by the railway, the following geological features of the country may be observed; by a reference to Wond. p. 360, the structure of this remarkable district may be easily understood.
Leaving the station at London Bridge, the London Clay, with its characteristic fossils, is seen beyond Deptford, by New Cross, Sydenham, &c.; and approaching Croydon, beds of gravel appear, with interspersions of olive-green sand. These strata belong to the Eocene formation, and lie above and upon the Chalk. The valley beyond Croydon (Smitham Bottom), along the side of which the railroad is carried, is composed of gravel resting on chalk; beyond the station called Stoat’s Nest, there is a fine section of the chalk, with layers of flint, and two parallel seams of marl, at the distance of six or eight feet from each other. These extend, with but little interruption, several miles, preserving their parallelism, although the strata in many places have sustained considerable disturbance. The Merstham Tunnel, through the Surrey chalk hills, is now entered. At Merstham the chalk, chalk-marl, and firestone are intersected, and the Lower Greensand of Red Hill appears; and from thence to Horley station, the lower sands and clays of the Chalk formation are passed over or cut through; affording sections of sandstone, ironstone, and fuller’s earth.