of the Inferior Oolite, 1 75 



The statement that these Ammonites all cease with the high- 

 est bed of the stage, needs some little qualification : a single 

 specimen of A. striatulus and A. variabilis has occasionally been 

 detected in the lowest of the hard brown beds which overlie the 

 Cephalopod-bed at Frocester Hill ; Belemnites and Rhynchonella 

 cynocephala are more frequent. Whether, however, these Tes- 

 tacea may have been washed into the newer bed, or may for 

 awhile have lingered there as living denizens, is of little moment, 

 as it is certain that the occurrence is of a local nature, and ex- 

 tends only to the lowest bed of the Inferior Oolite. 



In assigning to the Sands the provisional rank of a distinct 

 zoological stage, my conclusions are founded upon a review of 

 its fossils compared with those of the Upper Lias ''Epsilon" on 

 the one hand, and of the Inferior Oolite on the other, to each of 

 which they offer certain approximations, in some instances 

 amounting to absolute identity, in others to the more distant 

 affinities of varieties ; after deducting these, a considerable num- 

 ber still remain, which appear to be proper to the stage. This 

 view is to some extent in accordance with that of Quenstedt, 

 who, in his ' Jura,' has separated the Jurensis marls from his 

 Lias " Epsilorif' or Upper Lias shale, into a distinct subdivision 

 or stage of the Lias, under the name of Lias '^ ZetaJ' It may be 

 preferable for the present to allow it to remain as an independent 

 stage until more extended observations shall have been made, — 

 more especially until the Testacea of the Lias ^^Epsilon '^ shall 

 have been more fully figured and described. In this respect 

 it may rank as of the same stratigraphical value as the Cornbrash 

 or the Kelloway Rock, a theoretical arrangement which will 

 leave the problem to be determined by future researches, viz. to 

 which of the two great formations bordering it, its fossils offer 

 as a whole the nearest approximation „ Considerable as the list 

 of these has now become, it is evident that much still remains 

 to be done ; other localities require to have their fossils better 

 collected and examined. How insufficient is our list from Dor- 

 setshire ; how few species have been distinctly assigned to the 

 stage in Yorkshire; how short a time has elapsed since the 

 fossils of the lower zone have been collected in the Cotteswolds ; 

 how meagre is the list of M. Eugene Deslongchamps from Cal- 

 vados ; and, in the Mozelle, how considerable a number of the 

 species remain undetermined ! The recollection of these defi- 

 ciencies should induce us to discourage for awhile all decisive 

 conclusions, and lead us rather to compare our acquisitions from 

 time to time, carefully and rigidly subjecting them to the neces- 

 sary comparisons, free from the bias of preconceived opinions. 



In the Cotteswolds, 56 Testacea have been obtained in the 

 upper, and 54 in the lower zone; in all, 81 species, — divided 



