204 



HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



THE CEPHALOPODA OF THE CHALK 

 MARL AND UPPER GREENSAND, ISLE 

 OF WIGHT. 



DURING the past winter I have carefully searched 

 the quarries and sections of cliff in the neigh- 

 bourhood of Ventnor for some of the better fossils of 

 the chalk marl and upper greensand, and I heartily 

 recommend this locality to the notice of collectors. 

 A deserted quarry behind Bonchurch, which is called 

 "St. Boniface Quarry," will yield a great variety of 

 good fossils, provided a diligent search is made. In 

 the three feet of fossiliferous marl, which is here 

 exposed, I have obtained Turrilites tuberculatus 

 (fig. 154), but, as in the case of all the turrilites, it will 

 be found difficult to extract anything like perfect 

 specimens ; the reason of this difficulty is that 

 invariably the turrilites will be found at right angles 

 to the stratification, consequently the fossil is more 

 liable to get broken, unless great care has been taken 

 in breaking the marl. Turrilites (No. 158), of which I 

 only succeeded in preserving three coils, appears to me 

 a variety of " tuberculata," having three rows of 



in my cabinet, was found in the chalk marl on the 

 Ventnor beach ; it differs from undulatus in having 

 the ridges on each coil divided into two distinct parts 

 instead of one long and rather curved line. Turrilites 

 Bergerii (fig. 1 59), I found in the chloritic marl between 



Fig. 156. — Scaphites cequalis. 



Fig. 



155. — Turrilites 

 undulatus. 



Fig. 157. — Ammonites falcatus. 



Fig. 153. — Turrilites costatus. 



Fig. 158.— Turrilites (sp.) 



Fig. 154. — Turrilites tuberculatus. 



tubercles on each coil instead of five, as in the larger 

 specimen. Turrilites uudiilatits{f\g. 1 55) is the one most 

 frequently to be met with in the lower chalk of the 

 Isle of Wight, but we consider it a rare prize if a 

 specimen is obtained having the upper coils perfect. 

 Turrilites costatus (fig. 153), perhaps the best specimen 



Fig. 159. — Turrilites Bergerii. 



Ventnor and St. Lawrence ; this fossil is peculiar to 

 the formation, imperfect specimens being exceedingly 

 common. In Sir Charles Lyell's "Elements of 

 Geology," (page 282) the chloritic marl will be found 

 classified with the upper greensand, whereas local 

 geologists have been inclined to place it distinct 



