The Oldhaven beds (so termed by Mr. W. Whitaker from their development
at the place of the same name in Kent) are a local deposit, occurring
beneath the London Clay on the south side of the London basin, from
Croydon eastward, at the most eastern part of Surrey, and through
Kent--in the north-western corner of which county they form some
comparatively broad tracts. The beds consist of rounded flint pebbles,
in a fine sandy base, or of fine light-coloured sand, and are from
eighty to ninety feet thick under London.
The London Clay, which has a breadth of twenty miles or more about
London, consists of tenacious brown and bluish-grey clay, with layers of
the nodular concretions, called Septaria, which are well known on the
Essex and Hampshire coasts, where they are collected for making Roman
cement. The London Clay has a maximum thickness of nearly 500 feet. The
fossils of the London Clay are of marine genera, and very plentiful in
some districts. Taken altogether they seem to indicate a moderate,
rather than a tropical climate, although the Flora is, as far as can be
judged, certainly tropical in its affinities.[86] The number of species
of extinct Turtles obtained from the Isle of Sheppey alone, is stated by
Prof. Agassiz to exceed that of all the species of Chelone now known to
exist throughout the globe. Above this great bed lie the Bracklesham and
Bagshot beds, which consist of light-yellow sand with an intermediate
layer of dark-green and brown clay, over which lie the Barton Clay (in
the Hampshire basin) and the white Upper Bagshot Sands, which are
succeeded by the Fluvio-marine series comprising the Headon, Bembridge,
and Hempstead series, and consisting of limestones, clays, and marls, of
marine, brackish, and fresh-water origin.[87] For fuller accounts of the
Tertiary strata of England, the reader is recommended to the numerous
excellent memoirs of Mr. Prestwich, to the memoir “On the Tertiary
Fluvio-marine Formations of the Isle of Wight,” by Professor Edward
Forbes, and to the memoir “On the Geology of the London Basin,” by Mr.
W. Whitaker.
[86] Prestwich. _Quart. Jour. Geol. Soc._, vol. x., p. 448.
[87] Detailed sections of the whole of the Tertiary strata of the Isle
of Wight have been constructed by Mr. H. W. Bristow from actual
measurement of the beds in their regular order of succession, as
displayed at Hempstead, Whitecliff Bay, Colwell and Tolland’s
Bays, Headon Hill, and Alum Bay. These sections, published by the
Geological Survey of Great Britain, show the thickness, mineral
character, and organic remains found in each stratum, and are
accompanied by a pamphlet in explanation.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account