Bembridge Foreland is formed by a thick bed of flint gravel resting on the marls, which are seen again in Priory Bay, where in winter they flow over the sea-wall in a semi-liquid condition. They lie above the limestone at Gurnard, Thorness, and Hamstead. West of Hamstead Ledge the whole of the beds crop out on the shore, where beautifully preserved fossils may be collected. Large pieces of drift wood occur, also seeds and fruit. Many fragments of turtle plates may be found. Large crystals of selenite (sulphate of lime) occur in the Marls. Last of the Oligocene in the Isle of Wight are the Hamstead beds. These strata are peculiar to the Isle of Wight. The Bembridge beds also are not found on the mainland, except a small outlier at Creechbarrow Hill in Dorset. The Hamstead beds consist of some 250 feet of marls, in which many interesting fossils have been found. They cover a large area of the northern part of the Island, largely overlaid by gravels, and are only seen on the coast at Hamstead, where they form the greater part of the cliff, which reaches a height of 210 ft., the top being capped by gravel. In winter the clays become semi-liquid, in summer the surface may be largely slip and rainwash, baked hard by the sun. The lower part of the strata may be best seen on the shore. The strata consist of 225 ft. of freshwater, estuarine, and lagoon beds, with _Unio_, _Cyrena_, _Cyclas_, _Paludina_, _Hydrobia_, _Melania_, _Planorbis_, _Cerithium_ (rare), and remains of turtles, crocodiles, and mammals, leaves and seeds of plants; and above these beds 31 feet of marine beds with _Corbula_, _Cytherea_, _Ostrea callifera_, _Cuma_, _Voluta_, _Natica_, _Cerithium_, and _Melania_.