80

THE GEOLOGY OF BRIGHTON. PART II.

By JAMES HOWELL.

(Paper read July 7th, 1876.)

In the FIRST portion of this paper, published in the Third Volumeof the" Proceedings," page 168, after a description of the physicalfeatures of the district; and an historical account of recent modifi­cations of the coast-line, the Recent Deposits, the Post PlioceneBrick-earth and the Coombe Rock or Elephant-bed are described.The SECOND portion of the paper will be devoted to the considerationof the Temple Field Deposit and the Eocene beds of Furze Hill.

TEMPLE FIELD DEPOSIT.The Temple Field, named from the Temple School standing

upon this site, was, during my first recollections, arable land with ahedge at its eastern extremity running parallel with a path lead­ing over the hill and through Lovers' Walk to Preston. Withinthis field lay some fine boulders of Druid-sandstone, and which,with others then lying in a field nearer the Old Church, now formthe base of the Victoria fountain upon the Steine. The water­worn conglomerates scattered everywhere about the Downs.Whence came they? Let us see. .At the base of the Tertiarystrata at Newhaven, with one bed intervening between it and theChalk, lies a hard conglomerate of the thickness of a foot, con­sisting of shattered flints, pebbles, and sand, strongly impregnatedwith iron, and at the opposite end of the bay, at the commencement of the Chalk cliffs at Seaford, lying under a thick bed of sandbelonging to the Woolwich Series, the same conglomerate attains athickness of four feet. Probably the formation of this curious deposittook place in a shallow sea upon the Cretaceous strata, whichwould be covered with shattered flints mingled with pebbles andsand and clay and iron-stone, the latter cementing the heterogeneousmass into a hard conglomerate at the period when the Cretaceousstrata were gradually sinking beneath the sea to receive the sandsand clays of the Lower Eocene. Something akin to this came undermy observation last summer, near Bembridge Point, Isle of Wight,where water charged with carbonate of iron oozing out of theEocene cliff capped by a Pleistocene deposit, flowed seawardover a sparse beach, which in one or two places it badwelded together into a conglomerate or pudding-stone, evidentlyincreasing in size day by day, and which I watched with intense

J . HOW ELL ON TH E OEOI.OOY OF BRIGHTON. 81

interest. Now having seen this curious conglomerate scatteredover the surface of the Downs, and lying in situ at the base of theTertiaries at Seaford and Newhaven, let us turn our attention to theTemple Field, now covered with handsome edifices, viz., DenmarkTerrace, St. Michael's Pl ace, P owis Road, Victoria Road, CliftonHill, part of Clifton Road, Montp ellier Crescent, and VernonTerr ace. The same deposit can also be traced on through CobdenRoad to Stanford Road, Prest onville, th e latter being the sitemen tioned by Mr. Montague Phillips, when he says, " the Furze­hill deposit crops ont where th e Lovers' Walk commences, on theway to Preston." Thus it will at once be perceived tha t the TempleField lies at the east ern extremity of the Hamp shire 0 1' Eocenebasin, extending from Dorsetshire to Brighton, Church Hill form­ing its eastern rim, whose summit, with few exceptions, togetherwith its southern and eastern declivities, consist of Chalk withflints, while the Temple Field deposit extends down its westernand northern slopes, and in some places penetrates to its usualdepth 16~ feet on the crests of th e hill in the form of a wedge,with it s apex downwards, int o the very core of the Chalk, givingone the idea that the latter had been scooped out, and this depositwashed into the hollow. These wedge-formed hollows in the Chalkwore met with during th e excavations in several places. Nowupon this verg e of the Hampshire Basin , a geologist might expectto find the wrecks of th e Lower Eocene strata, as well as inthe Hove level below it, th eir rich loams converted into brick­earth, succeeded by sand reposing upon the Chalk, and such isth e fact. The various members of thi s deposit vary con­siderably in different places as regards thickness. The followingsection was displayed at th e bottom of Clifton Hill :-

1. Ri ch brown, dark grey or ochreous loam, shiveredflints, and seam s of sand ...

2. Clay or Brick- earth3. Breccia and ir onstone, with clay, chalk, rubble,

rotten flints, sub- sulphate and hydrate of alumina,succeeded by ochreous loam, containing brecci­ated masses of indurated clays, gypsum and flintsspangled with crystals of selenite, curious stonewith a metallic ring containing dark seams ofselenite somewhat resembling veined marble, andferruginoos chalk rubble

4. Chalk with flints, the upper portion iron-stained, fr om

3 feet .4 to 6 feet.

7 to 8 foot,3 to 4 feet.

82 J. HOWELL ON THE GEOLOGY OF BRIGHTON.

(1) The soil is very thin, some having being removed to formthe road which is constructed upon artificial layers of chalk, whichhave a curious appearance lying as they do above instead of underthe loam, the latter reaching in some places to the depth of severalfeet. It is generally of either a chocolate or ochreous colour,but in places assumes that of a dark-grey, containing immensequantities of shivered flints. Here and there in this deposit, butmore especially in Olifton Road, the workmen discovered thin seamsof silver. sand, specimens of which are preserved in our TownMuseum. This sand, a remnant of the Eocenes, had probably beenbleached by water percolating through it, charged with acidsderived from the vegetable soil. Both the chocolate and buff­coloured loam contain rotten granules in it resembling chalk,which, on being subjected to atmospheric action, crumble into a fineochreous powder. Iron, without doubt, has played an import­ant part in its formation. The vegetable soil and decomposingiron pyrites form sulphuric acid, which, percolating into the Chalk,converts it into gypsum. May not, therefore, this deposit in manyplaces be a gypseous marl, which coming in contact with theatmosphere imbibes carbonic acid which drives out the gypsum,and re-converts it into its original substance? When digging thefoundation of the Oongregational Ohurch, at the corner of Oliftonand Dyke Roads, the workmen laid bare a fine section of this de­posit, and the Ohalk beneath it. Lying in the loam was a brecciatedmass of ironstone, and a rich vegetable soil above it, whilst imme­diately beneath it was a vein of what appeared to be hydrate ofalumina, descending through the hard chalk to the very base ofthe foundation, and probably beyond it; but though the eye couldnot detect the difference, chemical analysis might prove the sub­stance to be lime, for it looked as if a stream of water percolatingthrough the soil and ironstone had deprived the chalk of its car­bonic acid. This was most probably" Hovite," a carbonate oflime and alumina. There are specimens of this water-work every­where throughout the deposit, leaving relics of its progress downinto the very core of the Chalk,

(2.) Olay or Brick-earth of a reddish-brown colour, and extremelyplastic, mixed with minute granules of chalk and flint. Accordingto Mr. Godwin-Austin, brick-earth owes its origin to sub-aerialaction, its most usual character being that of the wash of a ter­restrial surface under a far greater amount of annual rainfall than

J. HOWELL ON THE GEOLOGY OF BRIGHTON. 83

we have at present. It is a curious fact that this deposit shouldbe several feet in thickness down the western slope of the hill,while it is scarcely anywhere found on the eastern slope into theBrighton valley, where Coombe-rock takes its place. Whetherthis Temple Field clay, however, is a real brick-earth, is doubtful.I imagine it to be a much older formation than that lying in theHove Level. I extracted several lumps in its plastic state, lyingat the depth of ten feet beneath the surface, and rolled them intoballs, which are now scarcely distinguishable from the lower portionof the superincumbent loam.

(3.) This is a confused mass of chalk-rubble, clay, ironstone,breccia, sub-sulphate and hydrate of alumina, rotten flints, gypsum,brecciated masses of indurated clay, and flints spangled with crystalsof selenite, ferruginous chalk-rubble, with beds of ochreous loamdescending in wedge-like hollows of the Chalk, &c. At the bottomof Clifton Hill, near itsjunction with Montpellier Road, the breccialay in immense quantities. Some idea of this may be obtained fromthe fact that from Montpellier Road to St. Michael's Place thebreccia extracted from excavations two feet six inches in width laypiled up like a wall to the height of five feet. Much of it seemedto have undergone intense chemical action, so as scarcely to bedistinguishable from" slag." This occurred in masses weighingseveral hundred-weights, dug up at a depth of 15 feet from thesurface. The breccia was composed of angular and rolled flints,indurated clay and sand cemented by iron, and resembling incharacter the stratum lying in situ at Seaford. The whole of itwas purely a conglomerate, for not a single sandstone was foundthroughout the excavations in this locality. This breccia orpudding-stone, the remnants of the foundation of the Eocene, isby many confounded with the Grey Weathers or Druid Sandstone,possibly derived from the Wealden strata, probably from the Bag­shot Sands. The ironstone containing a large percentage of ironwas scattered confusedly everywhere about the deposit, except atthe north-east extremity of Montpellier Cresceut, where theexcavations reached 28 feet, for here, at the depth of 11 feet,occurred a vein of ironstone from 10 to 12 inches thick, of whichI procured specimens, as it seems to he playing a most import­ant part in the decomposition of the Brighton Chalk.

SUB.SULPHATE AND HYDBATE OP ALUMINA.-Half a centuryhas passed by since Mantell discovered among some gravel lying

H

84 J. HOWELL ON THE GEOLOGY OF BRIGHTON.

on a wharf at Lewes a curious mineral, and one which was astranger to him. The gravel in which he found it was broughtfrom Newhaven. A few months afterwards, as Mr. Webster wasrambling along the Sussex coast , he collected a specimen of thismineral at Newhaven , which, upon being analysed by Dr. Wolaston,was found to consist of alumina in combination with sulphuricacid, and a small proportion of silica, lime, and oxide of iron. Bymany it is called W ebsterite, deriving its name, like America, fromthe second, and not from its first discoverer. It occurs in the lastTertiary layer in Newhaven cliff, viz., ochreous clay associatedwith gypsum, resting upon the Chalk, the superincumhent bed beingbreccia impregnated with iron. Up to 1851 Newhaven, and Halle,in Prussia, were the only localities in which it had been discovered,but in this year, as previously stated, Mr. Montague Phillips founda thin seam of it in relics of Eocene strata on the site of StanfordVilla, Prestonville. From this period to 1870 it was discoveredin two or three localities in France, and was considered of rareoccurrence. But the fact is, that it may be found plentifullydistributed abont the Chalk districts wherever clay, pyrites, orironstone are superimposed upon the Cretaceous strata. AsMantell happened to find it at the base of the Lower Tertiaries,he very naturally concluded it to be a member of that series, butin many cases it is found not even associated with a single mem­ber of those beds, but deeply imbedded in the very core of theChalk.

In the summer of 1870, I received a visit from a friend, Mr.Spencer G. Perceval, who held in his hand a piece of this snow­white mineral, with which I had been familiar from the days of myboyhood, though ignorant of its real nature. I immediatelyaccompanied him to the spot where it was found in the TempleField, descended the excavations, and walked along the tunnelsome hundreds of yards, minutely examining the wondrous depositaround us. Promiscuou sly blended wore slag and ironstone,breccia and gypsum, broken flints and masses of aluminite, asif the glacial plough had rooted them up, and the glacialcrusher had passed over them, for the very foundations of theTertiary world were turned topsy-turvy, and mingled with thewrecks of the uppermost bed of the Chalk. There were differentvarieties of aluminite in this deposit, milk-white and very friable,straw-coloured, hard, soft, heavy and light, and one pretty speci­men, picked out of the clay in Clifton Road, with a straw-coloured

J. BOWELL ON TBE GE OL OGY OF' BRIGHTON. 85

coating having the appearance of allophane, Horizontal seamsof the white variety had penetrated through the flints, which,when touched, crumbled into fragments. A beautiful compact varietywas found in Clifton Road having the appearance of old ivory,and in th e centre of the specimen was what appeared to be a darkshining flint. That scientific enchanter, Manganese, had no doubtbeen trying his glamoury to produce this deception. But the mostsingular specimen of this mineral was found almost upon the surfaceof th e Chalk about one foot beneath the road at Powis Villas, beingmoulded like the trunk of a tree, and the bark or coating resemblinglignite. Mr. P erceval, in his article "On th e Occurrence ofW ebsterite at Brighton," thus describes it :_" The general ap­pearance of the mineral was highly suggestive of a vegetableorigin. Pieces with the rind attached, and having a fibrous struc­ture, much resembled portions of a. gigantic cocoa-nut. Twospecimens were obtained from the same place, which have beensecured for the Brighton Museum; th ey were mistaken for thestems of fossil trees, being in the form of a trunk, and describedas ' six inches in diameter, the bark changed into lignite, andmednllary rays diverging from the centre.' The substance on theexterior of the specimens, which so much resembled lignite, hasbeen examined by Dr. Flight of the British Museum, and hasbeen found to consist of mangan ese with a certain proportion ofcobalt." The specimens alluded to were portions broken fromwhat had every appearance of being the fossilised trunk of a smalltree, several feet in length. Mangan ese it was which mystifiedand deceived me, as it has once done since by delineating foliag-eupon a Wealden sandstone. Vegetation and crystalli sation havea closer relation ship than many of us deem. Sub-sulphate ofalumina is not, as it is supposed to be, a scarce mineral. Inthe railway cutting leading to Hove, it may be seen in every direc­tion lying immediately below ironstone, embedded in clay restingupon the Chalk, and so throughout th e Chalk in and aroundBrighton.

The late Mr. Montague Phillips and myself have often conversedtogether by the chalk-pit upon the incline leading into GoldstoneBottom, and yet that very pit contained cart loads of this mineral,although it is only twelve months since that my attention wasdirected to it by a pupil, who knew the substance from seeing itin my house, telling me there were immense masses of it inthis chalk-pit. Upon visiting the spot, I found it, as usual,

86 J. HOWELL ON THE GEOLOGY OF BRIGHTON.

associated with iron and clay. Rain-water, charged with sulphuricacid and iron, has percolated through these beds, staining the Ohalk,and therefore revealing its sinuous courses through it. The massivevariety of Websterite, or more probably, hydrate of alumina, isenveloped and intersected by these sinuous streams, but seldom thestem-like variety. An immense mass of the former bulges out ofthe Ohalk stratum, and measures vertically 6ft. 6in., and horizon­tally at the base 7ft. This is traversed in every direction by veinsof a soot-like substance, probably manganese, decomposed by sub­aerial action. Over these lies a friable layer of yellow Ohalk, under­going the process of formation into gypsum, and which on theapplication of sulphuric acid slightly effervesces. Resting upon thisis a mass of ironstone and ferruginous clay, oxydised to its verycore, and this is overlaid by chalk-rubble and vegetable mould. Thestem-like variety, beautiful specimens of which are preserved inour Museum, and whose coating of manganese and cobalt so muchresembles bark, is well represented in this pit. Some of thesemight be mistaken for petrified trees. They average from 2i to 8inches in diameter, and are of circular, oval, or irregular form.Many of these specimens showed no signs of the presence of eitherclay or percolations of water charged with acids in their vicinity.Being thus isolated from these substances, the question is-howwere they formed? In the same state of isolation, deep down intothe Chalk, and running parallel with it, were veins of aluminitoand clay, and the problem to solve is-how did the clay get there?In flints there is a small percentage of clay and iron. Does sul­phuric acid, formed from vegetable matter in the soil or decompos­ing iron pyrites, percolating through the Chalk, transform this clayinto sub-sulphate and hydrate of alumina, or is there enough clayin the Ohalk itself to form these substances? If so the processwould account for the shattered condition of the flints. Probablywhat Prof. Morris mentions in his notice of allophane, may alsoapply to these flints: that, having been crushed, the aluminitere-cemented them. When aluminite is embedded in clay, chemistryclearly reveals its origin j but when, on the other hand, it liesisolated in the Chalk, where there are no faults or fissures to accountfor its presence, then its formation is a difficult problem to solve.Since this was written, most of the aluminite alluded to in theGoldstone Bottom chalk-pit has been removed, and the pit nowdisplays a fine section of the Cretaceous strata. The mineral lyingin the core of the Ohalk in this pit is not aluminite, but" Hovite,"

J. HOWELL ON THE GEOLOGY OF BRIGHTON. 87

It was discovered and analysed by Mr: George Gladstone, andnamed by him "hovite," from the pit being situated in Hove.It is a carbonate of lime and alumina, and not a sulphate. Theeye, however, can detect no difference between the two minerals.

IRON ORE, CHALK, AND GYPsuM.-Much of the iron ore through­out this deposit is in a state of decomposition, very friable, and ofa cindery appearance. Some of the heaviest masses of this ore arepunctured with holes filled with a fine ochreous powder, probablyan oxide of iron, which gives to the whole heterogeneous mass itsferruginous appearance, and plays the most important part in thedecomposition of the Chalk strata. In every locality where thispeculiar Temple Field deposit lies, the fissures or holes in the Chalkseem to have been caused by the decomposition of the Chalk itself,water charged with acids and carbonate of iron being the primeagents of the disease. The same idea seems also to have occurredto Mr. Perceval, when he says, "The deposit of Websterite isabout three feet wide at its junction with the overlying ferruginousmass, narrowing as it descends, apparently occupying a fissure inthe Chalk, which has at some time been filled with clay, or has beenformed by some decomposing action on the Chalk." To me not asingle hole had the appearance of having been scooped out andthen filled with clay, but in every case the result of the latterprocess. One of these holes was met with in digging the founda­tions of All Saints' Church, and occasioned great expense. Nordo I believe after all the money spent upon it the foundationto be permanently secure, for so long as the agents of this chalkdisease are present above the Chalk, the disease will gradually eatinto its core, and render any building above unstable. It is likecancer in the human system, for which, if not wholly rooted out,there is no cure. But, in another respect, it is a blessing, meta­morphosing, as it does, the barren chalk into a fertilising soil, andthus giving to the inhabitants of the Downs what they so ardentlylong for, a few trees, with their grateful shadow. Wherever thisdeposit presents itself trees take root and flourish, as in theMontpellier district, and at the copse on the Dyke-road, &c. Oneof the largest holes in the Chalk, filled with this deposit, was cutthrough in Montpellier Road, opposite the north east extremity ofthe Crescent. Eleven feet beneath the surface lay the vein of iron­stone already alluded to, in an ochreous mould, light and dryasthe finest dust, probably an oxide of iron, which descended in theform of a wedge to the bottom of the excavations, 26 feet, and no

88 J. HOWELL ox THE GEOLOGY OF BRIGHTON.

doubt much deeper. Within it lay several masses of curious for­mation, having the appearance of blocks of chalk converted bychemical action into a stone containing iron, gypsum, and darkgreen crystals of selenite in horizontal seams, which gave it aresemblance to veined marble. One large mass contained three castsof Inoceramus, showing that the substance must have originally beenChalk. The dark grey colour and the dark seams of selenite maybe owing to the presence of bitumen. The roots of the trees in thegarden of Montpellier Orescent had ramified into the loam in everydirection, but not one of them had penetrated into the Ohalk. Muchof the ferruginous breccia had a cindery appearance. Otherspecimens resembled honeycomb, suggesting the idea of watercharged with acids dripping upon and eating into it. The cores ofother specimens of gypsum or indurated clay, with crystals ofselenite, seemed eaten out, probably by this water action. Crystalsof selenite abounded in some of the ironstone breccia, while limonitewas plentifully represented throughout the whole deposit. Somespecimens seem to have undergone intense chemical action, as ifthe substance of which they were composed had bubbled up andthe gas had escaped, leaving innumerable orifices upon the surface,coated with a coaly substance, or tinged of a yellow green andviolet hue, the unbroken bubbles being botryoidal and reniform.Pretty silver-like crystals adorned the smooth surface of the flints,sometimes assuming the frosted appearance seen upon our windowpanes. Other specimens sparkled as if diamond dust had beenscattered over them. Some of the crystals were flat and broad,some needle-shaped, others filled the interstices of the gypsum andindurated clay with cobweb forms.

FERRUGINOUS TABULATED FLINT.-At the junction of Cliftonand Dyke roads were found masses of ferruginous flint, flat andcoated with a covering of chalk, giving one the idea of a streamof silica and iron becoming solidified at the bottom of the Creta­ceous sea. It had every appearance of a silicate of iron. Chemi­cal analysis proves that silica is soluble in water, and that it hasan affinity for organic substances into whose composition it enters.That the process is a simple one there is little doubt, but in thesetabulated masses I was unable to detect any organisms to attractand precipitate the silica held in solution by the water. Whathidden cause effected this end? Did the infusoria create thesetabulated ferruginous masses of silica? The presence of silica inbog iron ore, and the incombustible organic structure of the very

J. H OWELL ON TH E GE OLO GY OF BRIGHTON. 89

small corpuscles which form the sur rounding ochre, make it, a~

E hrenburg rema rks, "very probable th at here also an organicrelation by infusorial formation comes into play, so t hat the se ani­malcules, after their death, form a nucleus towards which the dis­solved iron immediately around is at tracted." Specimens of thisyellow deposit were examined microscopically by Mr. W onfor,Honorary Secretary to th e Brighton and Sussex Na tural HistorySociety, who could discover no trace of Gaillonella, or the leastsigns of any organisms. There are many facts which prove thesolubility of silica in water . Reeds and rushes thrive luxuriantlyin ditches plentifully supplied with fresh streams of water. Ifsilica is only soluble at a very hig h temperature, how is it derivedby the stalks of corn and grasses from the flinty soil of our Downs?Nature has a more simple process in her wondrous laboratory toeffect this than we have. Liebig tells us that, after the destructionof a hay-rick by lightning in a meadow between Manheim andH eidelberg, there was found upon the spot where it stood a glassymass consisting of silicate of potash. "If (says Bischoff) thesilica, inst ead of being introduced into hay or straw, were depositedas a quartz layer, it would, in 78,705 years, acquire a thicknessof one foot , and the formation of th e most enormous quartz layersmay be accounted for in thi s .way."

GYPSUM: ITS ORIGIN.-These 'excavations through the TempleField clearly reveal one fact, viz., that th e heterogeneous mass thereconfusedly mingled was derived from the beds of Plastic Clayonce in situ in that locality i and not only there, but upon th ehighest summits of our Downs, where the loam still lies severalfeet in thickne ss. The denudation of the Lower Eocene, whosestrata form this deposit, must have been by the waves of the sea,the tumultuous rush of mighty waters, or the glacial plough, forthe breccia which lay upon th e Chalk in compact beds several feetin thickness has been t orn up, hurled over the surface of th eDowns, or roughly mingled with the soil, loam, clay, and chalk­rubbl e, as witnessed in the formation we have feebly attempted todescribe. The ruin is so complete, or the deposit is of suchchemical origin, that not a single fossil has been found imbeddedin it. Even the lignite of the Plastic Clay has entirely disapp eared,unless traces of it are still visible in the coaly variety of th e indu­r ated clay, breccia, and gypsum. Mention has been made that thecur iously-formed substance having a metallic ring, bore distinct

90 J . HOWELL ON TilE GEOLOGY OF BRIGHTON .

impressions of shells of th e Cretaceous epoch. How then, was thechalk, for chalk it must have been, converted into gypsum ? Wh atis the origin of gypsum and crystals of selenite, chalk being acarbonate and gypsum a sulphate of lime? As infiltrations ofcarbonate of lime convert sand into sandstones, and Chalk coralsand shells into limestones, so will infiltra tions of sulphuric acidconvert chalk into gypsum. 'Wherever wat er, th en, percolates, hold­ing sulphate of lime in solution, there must be gyp sum; and, shouldthe water evaporate, leaving a gas, sulphuretted hydrogen, then,wherever that gas penetrat es, be it int o clay or sand, into breccia,gypsum, shells or flints, th ere will be crystals of selenite. Bischoff,in his" Elements of Chemical and Physical Geology," says:­" The formation of gypsum from limestone in the neighbourhoodof exhalations of sulphuretted hydrogen, is a very common pheno­menon. Breislak brings forward many examples of such a for­mation from sulphur springs. In 1823 Cornelli found very curiouscrystals of gypsum and sulphur in th e crater of Vesuvius, origi­nating from the fumaroles. Dumas has shown that even th e mostminute traces of sulphuretted hydrogen convert limestone intogypsum. He found no free acid in the fumaroles of Tuscany, andyet th e carbonate of lime in their neighbourhood was rapidl y con­vert ed into gypsum, which could only be owing to a minute quantityof sulphuretted hydrogen in these vapours. H e observed a simila rphenomenon in the sulphur baths at Aix. The limestone walls ofthe saloons and bath rooms blister, and become covered with crystalsof gyp sum." Need we wonder, after this, at the production of sub­sulphate and hydrate of alumina, gypsum and crystals of selenite,in the Temple Field deposit? Nature works by simple laws, andthe results are truly wonderful. A great portion of the soil owesits origin to decomposed vegeta ble and animal organisms and ironpyrites. In this soil, ther efore, is sulphuric acid, which is conveyedby rain water down to the clay, ironstone, and Chalk through whichit percolates, and metamorphoses the clay into sub-sulphate andhydrate of alumina, and th e carbonate of lime into sulphate of lime,or gypsum, and crystals of selenite. In the clay and chalk rubblelie breccia and ironstone, spangled, by the union of sulphuric acidand lime, with crystals of every variety of form and colour. Suchare the characteristics, and such is the origin of thi s Temple Fi elddeposit, lying from 160 to 220 feet above the mean tide level ofthe sea, which rises and falls upon this coast 20 feet.