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On Markings in the Hastings Sand Beds near Hastings, supposed to be the Footprints of Birds, by Edward Tagart, published January 1846 in Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society (vol. 2, issue 1-2, article, p.267)   View Online

This communication was in the form of a letter addressed to the President, and accompanied a specimen of one of the bodies described. The markings in question appear to have been observed by several persons at Hastings; but they have not been found consecutive, or having any distinct relation to one another. They are of large size, the one presented to the Society measuring sixteen inches in length; but there does not appear, either from this specimen or from the account communicated by the author, any decisive evidence as to their origin.

A brief Notice of Organic Remains recently discovered in the Wealden Formation, by Gideon Algernon Mantell, published January 1849 in Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society (vol. 5, issue 1-2, article, pp.37-43)   View Online

As our knowledge of the zoology and botany of the islands and continents that nourished during the formation of the secondary strata, can only he extended by a diligent examination of the organic remains that may be discovered from time to time, it appears to me desirable occasionally to record, however briefly, the additions made to the fossil fauna and flora of the Wealden, in the hope of ultimately acquiring data that will afford a satisfactory elucidation of that remarkable geological epoch, "The Age of Reptiles;" - in which the vertebrated animals that inhabited the land, the air, and the waters, were, with the exception of fishes, almost exclusively of the reptilian type of organization. I therefore submit to the Society the following concise account of the Wealden fossils that have either come under my immediate notice, or of which I have received information from my correspondents, since my last communication on this subject.
Flora of the Wealden. - The additions to the Wealden flora from my own researches consist only of a few more instructive examples of Clathraria and Endogenites than any previously obtained. Specimens of the stem of Clathraria Lyellii, bearing the characteristic cicatrices formed by the attachment and subsequent separation of the petioles or leaf-stalks, have been found at Hastings, at Brook Point in the Isle of Wight, and in the Ridgway cutting near Weymouth. A water-worn fragment of a stem of Clathraria, which I picked up on the sea-shore at Brook Bay, was so much indurated as to render it

On Supposed Casts of Footprints in the Wealden, by S. H. Beckles, published January 1851 in Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society (vol. 7, issue 1-2, article, p.117)   View Online

Certain large trifid bodies, presenting a resemblance to the casts of the impressions of birds' feet, are rather numerous in the cliffs to the east and west of Hastings (from the latter locality Mr. Beckles has obtained eight specimens), in a limestone containing Cyrencæ, remains of Lepidotus, &c., and Dr. Mantell has discovered a specimen in the Wealden of the Isle of Wight.

On the Ornithoidichnites of the Wealden, by S. H. Beckles, published January 1852 in Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society (vol. 8, issue 1-2, article, pp.396-397)   View Online

Since the publication in January 1851 of the notice of the peculiar trifid bodies occurring in the Hastings rock, the author has added several specimens to his collection, some of which appear to afford additional evidence in favour of the opinion of their being natural casts of the prints of birds' feet.

On the occurence of fossil insects in the Wealden Strata of the Sussex Coast, by William R. Binfield and Henry Binfield, published January 1854 in Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society (vol. 10, issue 1-2, article, pp.171-176)   View Online

The specimens which we have the honour to present to the Geological Society are, we believe, the first remains of Insects from the Wealden of Hastings which have been brought before the notice of the Society; the details we have been able to collect respecting the position and character of the beds containing them may, therefore, Cliffs, including many localities where the insect-beds occur, will be found in the 'Geological Transactions,' 2nd ser. vol. ii. Part 1. pl. 5, appended to Professor Webster's memoir "On the Strata near Hastings" (p. 31, &c. of the same vol.), to which we shall frequently refer, as well as to Dr. Fitton's memoir "On the Strata below the Chalk," Geol. Trans. 2nd ser. vol. iv. Part 2.

On the Newer Tertiary Deposits of the Sussex Coast, by R. Godwin-Austen, published January 1856 in Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society (vol. 12, issue 1-2, article, pp.4-6)   View Online

From Brighton, westwards, between the chalk-hills and the sea, the surface of the country is formed, first, by a raised terrace of "red gravels," lying on the sloping base of the chalk-hills, and on the old tertiary deposits; secondly, the gravels of the Chichester levels, or the "white gravels." These latter are distinctly bedded and seamed with sand, and are more water-worn than the red gravels which pass under them; thirdly, the white gravels are overlaid by "brick-earth," which is somewhat variable in its characters. These, with their equivalents, are the Glacial deposits of the district in question.

On some geological features of the country between the South Downs and the Sussex Coast, by P.J. Martin, published January 1856 in Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society (vol. 12, issue 1-2, article, pp.134-137)   View Online

The object of this paper is not so much to give a minute description of the district I am about to review, as to promote a discussion amongst the members of the Society here present on some of its phænomena, which seem to be singularly illustrative of the superficial changes that have been effected in the south of England by dynamic forces of comparatively modern date.
The district is to be found in the ninth section of the Ordnance Map, and extends from near Portsmouth to Shoreham, or that flat country which is to be seen from any part of the tops of the South Downs from Portsdown Hill eastward to the Shoreham River.

On the lowest strata of the cliffs at Hastings, by S.H. Beckles, published January 1856 in Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society (vol. 12, issue 1-2, article, pp.288-292)   View Online

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.

On the newer Tertiary deposits of the Sussex coast, by R. Godwin-Austen, published January 1857 in Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society (vol. 13, no. 1-2, article, pp.40-72)   View Online

It was only a very short time since, and that, too, in the most advanced treatises on systematic geology, that certain superficial accumulations of every European district were grouped together, as belonging to "the diluvial period." Recent investigations are now beginning to assure us of the great amount of physical change which is referable to that period, and also that it was not transitory, nor convulsive, as it has been frequently represented. Already it is separable into stages and subdivisions, whereby the lapse of time is becoming clearly marked out.
The knowledge we possess of the history of these later changes is as yet a very imperfect one, and it is not perhaps too much to assert, that, of all geological periods, that which comes nearest to our own times is the one which is the least understood. If the accumulations themselves in these regions are wanting in those vertical dimensions which speak directly to the eye as to the vast duration of the older palæozoic, secondary, and tertiary periods, the very fact of great physical changes having taken place during comparatively much shorter periods of time is in itself a consideration which renders the earth's recent history even more strange than its remoter one.

On the Pleistocene Sea-bed of the Sussex Coast, being the Western Extension of the Raised Sea-beach of Brighton, by Joseph Prestwich, published January 1859 in Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society (vol. 15, issue 1-2, article, p.86)   View Online

On the Succession of Beds in the ?Hastings Sand? in the Northern Portion of the Wealden Area, by Frederic Drew, published January 1861 in Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society (vol. 17, issue 1-2, article, pp.271-286)   View Online

Having for the last two years been engaged (in the course of the progress of the Government Survey) in examining part of that large tract in the south-east of England which is made by the outcrop of the Wealden strata, and having now become acquainted with many details concerning that formation, I wish to bring before the Society an account of its lithological character and of the order of succession that prevails in it.
As regards this part of England, the Wealden formation has long been divided into three members, namely -
The "Weald Clay," the ?Hastings Sand," and the "Ashburnham Beds." The first, the "Weald Clay," is much the same through all its thickness; where there is variety in it, it has been well described by Dr. Fitton, Mr. Martin, and Dr. Mantell. The lowest member, the ?Ashburnham Beds,? which may, perhaps, be classed with the Purbeck formation, does not appear in that district in which I have more particularly been engaged. I shall therefore say little of these two, and almost confine myself to the "Hastings Sand," and to the northern part of the Hastings Sand country, a district, 50 miles long and varying from 3 to 12 or more in width, lying between and in the neighbourhood of the towns of Tenterden, Cranbrook, Tunbridge Wells, East Grinstead, and Horsham.

On the footprint of an Iguanodon, lately found at Hastings, by Alfred Tylor, published January 1862 in Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society (vol. 18, issue 1-2, article, pp.247-253)   View Online

The occurrence of ichnites or footprints in the Wealden strata has on previous occasions been brought before the notice of the Geological Society by both Tagart and Beckles; and these remains have also been alluded to by Mantell in his 'Geology of the Isle of Wight' (1st edit., 1847, pp. 247, 328).
A notice of the recent discovery of similar impressions may be interesting, and may assist in throwing some light upon their nature and character, as well as lead us to some general observations on the strata in which they are found.
By the earlier observers these footprints were referred to gigantic birds, but subsequently the probability of their being reptilian has been advanced. This idea is supported by the abundant occurrence of numerous bones of the Iguanodon and other Dinosaurians in the Wealden deposits. By Dr. Mantel's exertions many of these remains were brought before the scientific world; and more lately Professor Owen, in a monograph published by the Palæontographical Society, has figured and described, among other fine specimens, the bones of the foot of a young Iguanodon, obtained by Mr. Beckles in the Isle of Wight. This foot has three toes, measures 21 inches in length and 9½ in width, and would form a print or "spoor" similar in outline to that shown by the imprint now exhibited, and by the several other imprints and natural casts of imprints found in the Wealden rocks.

On the Cliff-sections of the Tertiary beds West of Dieppe in Normandy, and at Newhaven in Sussex, by William Whitaker, published January 1871 in Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society (vol. 27, issue 1-2, article, pp.263-268)   View Online

The notes from which this paper is made were taken in the summer of 1886. The two sections described are interesting as showing the spread of beds that, but for them, would be thought to occur only in the south-eastern part of the London Basin; and I believe that no detailed description of the French one has been published, whilst the English one has been enlarged since the time of its latest description.

On some New Macrurous Crustacea from the Kimmeridge Clay of the Sub-Wealden Boring, Sussex, and from Boulogne-sur-Mer, by Henry Woodward, published January 1876 in Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society (vol. 32, issue 1-2, article, pp.47-50)   View Online

It has always appeared to me to be a point of special interest to geologists to record those forms found in a fossil state which have a considerable vertical range, and yet belong to genera existing at the present day. Among higher groups now living, we find the vertical range exceedingly small; but when we examine the Invertebrata, we meet with such genera as Lingula, Pentacrinus, and Limulus having an extremely high antiquity; but the higher forms of these types follow precisely the same general law, having a much more restricted range in time than the lower and humbler genera.
One of the Crustacea about to be described by me belongs to a very interesting group, the family of the Thalassinidæ.

On Thecospondylus horneri, a new dinosaur from the Hastings Sand, indicated by the sacrum and the neural canal of the sacral region, by Harry Govier Seeley, published January 1882 in Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society (vol. 38, issue 1-4, article, pp.457-459)   View Online

Dr. A. C. Horner, of Tonbridge, has obtained from the quarry at Southborough in the Hastings Sand, and intrusted to me, what I believe to be a unique specimen, so far as this country is concerned, exhibiting a mould of the entire neural cavity of the sacral region of a Dinosaur. But the specimen is nevertheless peculiarly tantalizing, since the quarryman states that it is the only specimen of any kind that he has ever found in the quarry, and enough remains of bony tissue upon the cast to render it certain that the external mould of the sacrum, if not the bony tissue itself, might have been preserved. It its imperfect both anteriorly and posteriorly, but measures exactly 60 centimetres in length. The vertebræ which are complete are five in number; each is 11 centim. long; but there is a small fragment in front which appears to show that there was another vertebra anteriorly (fig. 2, 1), while the fragment of the posterior vertebra (fig. 2, 7) admits of no question. We have thus a sacrum which certainly included six or seven vertebræ, and may have comprised more. The bony tissue is preserved only upon the right side of three consecutive vertebræ. It is a thin film closely adherent to the cast, showing a cancellous structure external to the thin interior layer (fig. 1, b).

On Heterosuchus valdensis, Seeley, a Proc?lian Crocodile from the Hastings Sand of Hastings, by H. G. Seeley, published January 1887 in Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society (vol. 43, issue 1-4, article, pp.212-215)   View Online

The specimen in the British Museum, numbered 36555, came there in the second Mantellian collection, which was acquired after Dr. Mantell's death. It is part of a thin ironstone nodule, 10 centim. long and 6 centim. wide, from the Hastings Sand of Hastings, manifestly water-worn, but containing vertebræ which have not hitherto been determined. The nodule (Pl. XII. fig. 7) displays the remains of fully a dozen vertebræ, which extend round the nodule in parts of more than one coil, so arranged as to expose the ventral surface or bodies of the vertebræ, towards the external margin of the concretion. These vertebræ indicate a proc?lian Crocodile of small size; and although the remains are so imperfect, I refer them to a new genus, since their forms are different from those of any Purbeck Crocodiles or other described Crocodilia.

Note on a new Wealden iguanodont and other dinosaurs, by Richard Lydekker, published January 1888 in Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society (vol. 44, issue 1-4, article, pp.46-61)   View Online

The primary object of this communication is to bring to the notice of the Society numerous remains of an apparently new Iguanodont Reptile obtained by Mr. C. Dawson, F.G.S., of St. Leonards, from the Wadhurst Clay (one of the beds of the Hastings Sand, or lower division of the Wealden), and recently acquired by the British Museum; and also a maxilla from the Wealden of the Isle of Wight, apparently referable to Ornithopsis. Having, however, recently examined the whole of the collection of Dinosaurian remains preserved in the Museum, in the course of the preparation of the first part of the forthcoming 'Catalogue of Fossil Reptilia' of the collection, I have also made certain observations regarding other members of the order, which may be conveniently recorded at the same time.

On some Remains of Squatina Cranei, sp. nov., and the Mandible of Belonostomus cinctus, from the Chalk of Sussex, preserved in the Collection of Henry Willett, Esq., FGS, Brighton Museum, by A. Smith Woodward, published January 1888 in Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society (vol. 44, issue 1-4, article, pp.144-148)   View Online

Last year, when attempting to elucidate the dentition of the Cretaceous Selachian genus Ptychodus, I had the honour of bringing before the notice of the Society an important specimen from the cabinet of Henry Willett, Esq., F.G.S., of Brighton; and in subsequent studies both of this and of contemporaneous ichthyic types I have been favoured by the same gentleman's kind permission to make use of the whole of his valuable collection. Among the fossils there are two, bearing upon the subject of recent inquiries, which seem to reveal points of considerable interest and significance; and of these I propose to offer a brief notice in the present communication. The one specimen adds the "Angel-fish" (Squatina) to the list of English Chalk Fishes, and apparently indicates a new species; the other makes known some hitherto unrecognized features in one of the most singular of Cretaceous Ganoids, Belonostomus cinctus.

The Pleistocene deposits of the Sussex coast, and their equivalents in other districts, by Clement Reid, published January 1892 in Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society (vol. 48, issue 1-4, article, pp.344-364)   View Online

The geological survey of the district lying between the South Downs and the Sussex coast has been completed, but the time needed for finishing and engraving the maps will make it impossible to publish a memoir for several years to come. It seems advisable, therefore, to bring before this Society an outline of the general results obtained, especially as certain of these results may seriously modify our views as to the succession of the deposits, and also as to the climatic changes in late Tertiary times in the South of England. A previous communication, published in this Journal, dealt with the question of the origin of the Coombe Rock and of dry Chalk valleys; I now propose to continue this work by showing the relation of the Coombe Rock to the various Pleistocene strata which occupy the plain lying between the southern edge of the Downs and the sea. I propose also to indicate briefly the probable correlation of these strata with the glacial deposits of other parts of England.

On a sauropodous dinosaurian vertebra from the Wealden of Hastings, by Richard Lydekker, published January 1893 in Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society (vol. 49, issue 1-4, article, pp.276-280)   View Online

In an earlier volume of this Journal Mr. Hulke figured and described certain vertebræ of a large Sauropodous Dinosaur from the Wealden of the Isle of Wight, under the name of Ornithopsis, that name having been substituted for Eucamerotus, which the author had previously intended to use on account of its being the earlier. I have subsequently had reason to indicate that the name Ornithopsis itself must, for the same reason, yield to Hoplosaurus, which was proposed by Gervais on the evidence of a tooth of the same animal.

On a Mammalian Incisor from the Wealden of Hastings, by Richard Lydekker, published January 1893 in Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society (vol. 49, issue 1-4, article, pp.281-283)   View Online

Hiltherto the only evidence of the existence of mammals in the English Wealden is afforded by a cheek-tooth from the Wadhurst Clay of Hastings, described recently by Mr. A. Smith Woodward, and referred to the Purbeckian genus Plagiaulax. I am now, thanks to Sir John Evans, K.C.B., in a position to affirm the presence of a second mammal in the same formation, which likewise seems to be referable to a genus originally described from the Purbeck.

On the Discovery of Natural Gas in East Sussex, by C. Dawson, published January 1898 in Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society (vol. 54, issue 1-4, article, pp.564-571)   View Online

The first record of the discovery of an inflammable natural gas in East Sussex is contained in Mr. Henry Willett's 13th Quarterly Report of the Subwealden Exploration (Netherfield), 1875. It is there stated that in making experiments on the temperature, etc. at various depths, and on lowering a light in the bore-tube, an explosion occurred. Strange oscillations in the depth of the water are reported to have been noticed, which at the time were attributed (inter alia) to the discharge of inflammable gases derived probably 'from the petroleum-bearing strata beneath' (the Kimeridge Clay).
Another discovery of inflammable natural gas occurred in the year 1895, when a deep artesian bore-tube (6 inches in diameter) was sunk in the stable-yard of the New Heathfield Hotel, close to the Heathfield Station of the London, Brighton, & South Coast Railway Company (Eastbourne & Tunbridge Wells Branch) in the parish of Waldron, East Sussex. At the depth of 228 feet, the foreman of the work noticed that the water which had been put down the borehole to assist the working of the tools was 'boiling.' As he was about to lower a candle to discover the cause, the gas arising from the bubbles caught fire, and burnt 'to about the height of a man.' Subsequently the foreman attached small tubes and ignited the gas at a distance of 15 yards from the borehole.

Note on Natural Gas at Heathfield Station (Sussex), by J. T. Hewitt, published January 1898 in Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society (vol. 54, issue 1-4, article, pp.572-574)   View Online

In a boring made for water some months ago at Heathfield Railway-station (L. B. & S. C. R.) an outflow of natural gas was encountered. A cap provided with a cock was placed at the outlet of the boring, and thus the collection of a sample of the gas for analysis was an easy matter. Owing to the courtesy of Mr. R. J. Billinton, the Locomotive Engineer of the London, Brighton, & South Coast Railway, who not only gave me the necessary permission, but also placed every facility at my disposal, I was enabled to take a sample of the gas on Dec. 31st, 1897. Mr. Billinton further informed me that a bed of lignite had been encountered at a depth of about 300 feet; this was of considerable thickness, and was supposed to be the stratum in which the gas had its origin. He very kindly provided me with a specimen of this substance, which one can perhaps better regard as a shale; this also was analysed.