On the Lowest Strata of the Cliffs at Hastings

Abstract

The strata of which this communication is intended to be a very brief notice form the base of that range of cliff which extends from Hastings to Cliff End. The group that I am about to describe consists of sandstone and clays, remarkable for their great diversity of hue, and are subordinate to those beds of conglomeratic shale and ironstone which Mr. Webster has described as the lowest strata visible in the series. They are supplemental, therefore, to the strata comprised, or intended to be comprised, in that author's notice. At the date, however, of his Memoir they were partially disclosed, although perhaps not at those detached points where he traced his lowest strata. Mr. Webster, in speaking of the strata to the east of Hastings, remarks, that “the lowest strata visible in this series consist of a dark-coloured shale ( m, m ), which is seen at the Govers and at Cliff End, and contain small roundish masses of sandstone, together with several layers (two of them from two to three inches thick) of rich argillaceous iron-ore.” On the west of Eaglesbourne this last bed rises, in an arch, to the height of about twelve feet and then descends to the east. At Cliff End it reappears, and may be traced at low-water, forming a ledge.