FOSSILS OF THE NEIGHBOURHOOD. 119 



the rock at Jenny Cliff, and now in the possession 

 of its discoverer, Mr. Wyatt, surgeon. Besides the 

 limestone, the adjoining depositions have been found 

 to contain animal remains. 



Mr. Henneh informs us that he observed at Mount 

 Wise, a red, calcareous sand-stone, containing bi- 

 valve shells; and I have found that the fossil 

 Zoophytes, in the old wall before mentioned, and 

 which had been dug out of an adjoining quarry, are 

 by no means confined to the lime, but exist likewise 

 in the slate. Lastly, to support the statement of the 

 slate of this neighbourhood containing organic re- 

 mains, I may mention that, occasionally, pieces of 

 that substance are seen, with dendritic impressions ; 

 and, on examining a slate quarry, about one mile 

 from Yealmpton, I observed, in several parts of it, 

 fossils, wHlch, from their branched form, must either 

 be the remains of a kind of plant, or of a branched 

 Zoophyte, They resemble the trunk and chief limbs 

 of a large tree in their arrangement, are about one 

 foot in extent, the trunk usually zig-zag, and about 

 a quarter of an inch broad, consists of extremely 

 narrow bands of the slate joined together like the 

 rings of an earth-worm, and these being opposed in 

 direction to the fibres of the surrounding slate, prove 

 that it is no fortuitous occurrence, and must depend 

 on the former presence of an animal or plant — most 

 probably the first named of these. 



The second kind of animal remains of this district 

 consists of the bones of animals which have from 

 time to time been discovered in caverns of the lime- 

 rock. On inspecting the quarries of this substance, 

 which exist plentifully around Plymouth, vertical 

 sections of caverns or hollows are observed. It is 

 aside the intention of this paper to discuss the 

 manner in which these cavities originated ; but I 

 may remark that they take very various directions, 

 and have been seldom if ever traced to their external 

 communication — a circumstance rather attributable 

 to the difficulty of so doing, from their intricate 



