where it forms the ridge on which the Church stands. The limestone is a freshwater formation, and the fossils are mostly freshwater shells, of the same type as the Headon, Limnaea and Planorbis the most common. There are also land shells, especially several species of Helix, the genus which includes the common snail,--_H. globosa_, very large,--and great species of _Bulimus_ (_Amphidromus_) and _Achatina_ (_B. Ellipticus_, _A. costellata_). These interesting shells were chiefly obtained in the limestone at Sconce near Yarmouth, a locality now inaccessible, being occupied by fortifications. The land shells have an affinity to species now found in Southern North America. The limestone also abounds in the so-called "seeds" of Chara. The reproductive organs,--the "seeds,"--of this curious water-plant, allied to the lower Algae, are, like the rest of the plant, encased in carbonate of lime, and are very durable. Large numbers are found in the Oligocene strata. Under the microscope they are seen to be beautifully sculptured in various designs, with a delicate spiral running round them. Above the limestone lie the Bembridge marls, varying in thickness in different localities from 70 to 120 feet. North of Whitecliff Bay they stretch on to the Foreland. They are in the main a freshwater formation, but a few feet above the limestone is a marine band with oysters, _Ostrea Vectensis_. It runs out along the shore, where the oysters may be seen covering the surface. The Lower Marls consist chiefly of variously-coloured clays with many shells, chiefly _Cyrena pulchra_, _semistriata_, and _obovata_, _Cerithium mutabile_, and _Melania muricata_ (_acuta_); and red and green marls, in which are few shells, but fragments of turtle occur. A little above the oyster bed is a band of hard-bluish septarian limestone. Sixty years ago Edward Forbes remarked on the resemblance of this band to the harder insect-bearing limestones of the Purbeck beds. In a limestone exactly resembling this, and similarly situated in the lower part of the marls in Gurnard and Thorness Bays, numerous insects were afterwards found,--beetles, flies, locusts, and dragonflies, and spiders. Leaves of plants, including palms, fig, and cinnamon, have also been found in this bed, showing that the climate was still sub-tropical. The upper Marls consist chiefly of grey clays with abundance of _Melania turritissima_ (_Potamaclis_). The chief shells in the marls are _Cyrena_, _Melania_, _Melanopsis_ and _Paludina_ (_Viviparus_). They are often beautifully preserved; the species of Cyrena often retain their colour-markings.