Owing to the impossibility of making an accurate Survey of many of the flatter and Drift-covered portions of England, in the absence of sections, the light boring tools so extensively used by the Geological Survey of Belgium have been experimentally tried during the last few months in the Isle of Wight. The results arrived at are of so much interest that the Director has requested me to draw up this preliminary notice.

The Hempstead Beds, which were thought to be confined to the outlier at Hempstead Cliff and another of unknown extent in Parkhurst Forest, prove to be much more important, indeed they occupy about half the Tertiary area of the Isle of Wight.