VI.—On a Portion of the Osborne Beds of the Isle of Wight, and on some Remarkable Organic Remains recently discovered therein

Extract

At several places along the north-eastern coast of the Isle of Wight the Osborne Beds crop out on the shore to some extent and admit of examination. From the great difficulty which is usually experienced by geologists in getting at any workable section or outcrop of these beds but little, one might say almost nothing, is known about them. There are few divisions of the Tertiary strata of the Island which present so many variations both of composition and of fossil contents as do the Osborne Beds at their various outcrops; and at the three places where they are most usually examined—at Whitecliff Bay, at St. Helen's, and at Alum Bay—they yield few fossils, and there is nothing extraordinary about the composition of the clayey strata.