The Student's Elements of GeologyLyell, Charles, Sir
Science
The Student's Elements of Geology
Lyell, Charles, Sir
Geology
The picturesque scenery of the “High Rocks” and other places in the
neighbourhood of Tunbridge Wells is caused by the steep natural cliffs,
to which a hard bed of white sand, occurring in the upper part of the
Tunbridge Wells Sand, mentioned in the above table, gives rise. This
bed of “rock-sand” varies in thickness from 25 to 48 feet. Large masses
of it, which were by no means hard or capable of making a good
building-stone, form, nevertheless, projecting rocks with perpendicular
faces, and resist the degrading action of the river because, says Mr.
Drew, they present a solid mass without planes of division. The
calcareous sandstone and grit of Tilgate Forest, near Cuckfield, in
which the remains of the Iguanodon and Hylæosaurus were first found by
Dr. Mantell, constitute an upper member of the Tunbridge Wells Sand,
while the “sand-rock” of the Hastings cliffs, about 100 feet thick, is
one of the lower members of the same. The reptiles, which are very
abundant in this division, consist partly of saurians, referred by Owen
and Mantell to eight genera, among which, besides those already
enumerated, we find the Megalosaurus and Plesiosaurus. The Pterodactyl
also, a flying reptile, is met with in the same strata, and many
remains of Chelonians of the genera _Trionyx_ and _Emys,_ now confined
to tropical regions.
The fishes of the Wealden are chiefly referable to the Ganoid and
Placoid orders. Among them the teeth and scales of _ Lepidotus_ are
most widely diffused (see Fig. 293, next page). These ganoids were
allied to the _Lepidosteus,_ or Gar-pike, of the American rivers. The
whole body was covered with large rhomboidal scales, very thick, and
having the exposed part coated with enamel. Most of the species of this
genus are supposed to have been either river-fish, or inhabitants of
the sea at the mouth of estuaries.
Fig. 293: Lepidotus Mantelli, a. Palate and teeth, b. Side view of
teeth, c. Scale.
Fig. 294: Unio Valdensis. Fig. 295: Under side of slab of sandstone
about one yard in diameter.
At different heights in the Hastings Sands, we find again and again
slabs of sandstone with a strong ripple-mark, and between these slabs
beds of clay many yards thick. In some places, as at Stammerham,
Horsham, near there, are indications of this clay having been exposed
so as to dry and crack before the next layer was thrown down upon it.
The open cracks in the clay have served as moulds, of which casts have
been taken in relief, and which are, therefore, seen on the lower
surface of the sandstone (see Fig. 295).
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