538 Mr. Scrope on the Ripple-Marks and 



ON THE RIPPLE-MARKS AND TRACKS OF CERTAIN 

 ANIMALS IN THE FOREST MARBLE. 



BY G. POULETT SCROPE, ESQ., F.R.S., F.G.S., &c. 



HPHE surface of the great elevated oolite range north of Bath 

 is occupied throughout a very considerable area, by 

 highly fissile limestone beds, belonging to the forest marble, 

 and a prolongation of the Stonesfield slate, which are here like- 

 wise in general use for roofing buildings. Residing in the 

 centre of this district, I have had frequent opportunities of 

 observing, in a great number of neighbouring quarries, the ten- 

 dency of this rock to exhibit a wavy or wrinkled surface, so 

 completely identical in all its varieties with the rippled mark- 

 ings of the sea-sands left dry by the ebbing of the tide upon 

 some of our coasts, as to leave no room for doubting that it 

 was produced precisely in the same manner, at the period of 

 the deposition of the beds. 



This configuration, though it has not yet perhaps attracted 

 sufficient attention, (suggesting as it does several very interesting 

 questions, and tending to confirm many important geological 

 views,) has been remarked by others as well as myself, and in 

 other localities. But I have also lately discovered other appear- 

 ances on the rippled surface of these beds, of a novel character, 

 to which it may be worth while to call the attention of those 

 geologists who have time and opportunity for the further ex- 

 amination of this and similar marine formations. 



I have observed the ripple-mark in a vast number of quar- 

 ries, scattered pretty thickly over a broad band of country, 

 stretching along the eastern slope of the great oolite range 

 from Bradford in Wilts, to Tetbwry in Gloucestershire. I have 

 little doubt that it will be found elsewhere along the continua- 

 tion of the same beds. 



It is repeated throughout a series of strata of considerable 

 thickness ; and is continuous, not only over slabs of the largest 

 size which the quarry-men uncover at once, (I have seen one 

 twenty-five feet long entirely covered with these wrinkles,) but 

 apparently extends throughout a very much greater area, to be 



