On Upper Eocene Fossils from the Isle of Wight

Abstract

As you wish me to give you my opinion respecting these Tertiary beds of the Isle of Wight, I will do it as fully as I can at present. I consider the upper formations of Hempstead to be the exact equivalent of those at Weinheim, Jeurres, and Bergh ( Rupélien inférieur , Dumont). I had already arrived at this opinion, on receiving from Saemann, in Paris, Voluta Forbesi , Edw., which Mr. Edwards himself considers as identical with V. Rathieri , together with some other fossils which have hitherto only been found in this horizon. The collection now sent adds Cerithium plicatum , with varieties, which Mr. Edwards calls C. subcostellatum , Forb., and C. inornatum , Morr.; also C. elegans , Desh. ( C. variabile , in the collection, and C. Austenii belong to the same species), C. Lamarckii , Brongn. (= C. Sedgwickii , Morr.), also Ostrea adlata , S. Wood (= O. cyathula , Lam., juv. ), Lucina Thierensi , Héb., Corbula subpisum , D'Orb., Panopæa minor , Forb. (= P. Heberti , Bosq., juv. ), Ostrea callifera , Lam., O. longirostris , Lam., Tellina Nystii , Desh. ( Tellina , sp. indeterm. in the collection), Lithodomus delicatulus , Desh. ( Modiola , sp. indeterm. in the collection), hitherto only known from Merigny, Waldböckelheim, and Alzey,—so that I now can no longer doubt that the upper beds of Hempstead accurately correspond with our “Marine Sand.” Much more difficult is it to make out the lower beds; I can at present only point out one horizon which corresponds with anything in Alsace or Germany—the freshwater limestone of Bembridge and Sconce═beds at Buxweiler (Alsace) and Abstadt (Baden).