Abstract

As you wish me to give you my opinion respecting these Tertiary beds of the Isle of Wight, I will do it as fully as I can at present.

I consider the upper formations of Hempstead to be the exact equivalent of those at Weinheim, Jeurres, and Bergh (Rupélien inférieur, Dumont). I had already arrived at this opinion, on receiving from Saemann, in Paris, Voluta Forbesi, Edw., which Mr. Edwards himself considers as identical with V. Rathieri, together with some other fossils which have hitherto only been found in this horizon. The collection now sent adds Cerithium plicatum, with varieties, which Mr. Edwards calls C. subcostellatum, Forb., and C. inornatum, Morr.; also C. elegans, Desh. (C. variabile, in the collection, and C. Austenii belong to the same species), C. Lamarckii, Brongn. (= C. Sedgwickii, Morr.), also Ostrea adlata, S. Wood (= O. cyathula, Lam., juv.), Lucina Thierensi, Héb., Corbula subpisum, D'Orb., Panopæa minor, Forb. (= P. Heberti, Bosq., juv.), Ostrea callifera, Lam., O. longirostris, Lam., Tellina Nystii, Desh. (Tellina, sp. indeterm. in the collection), Lithodomus delicatulus, Desh. (Modiola, sp. indeterm. in the collection), hitherto only known from Merigny, Waldböckelheim, and Alzey,—so that I now can no longer doubt that the upper beds of Hempstead accurately correspond with our “Marine Sand.”

Much more difficult is it to make out the lower beds; I can at present only point out one horizon which corresponds with anything in Alsace or Germany—the freshwater limestone of Bembridge and Sconce═beds at Buxweiler (Alsace) and Abstadt (Baden).