Geological Society. 327 



isting marine species. The pebbles had undergone considerable 

 attrition, but presented a flattened, not a spheroidal form. They con- 

 sisted chiefly of granite, slate, chert, porphyries, greenstone, amyg- 

 daloid, new red sandstone, coal-measure sandstone, and quartz peb- 

 bles, identical with those of the conglomerate beds of the new red 

 sandstone of the district. The shells, which were thickly disseminated 

 through the whole deposit, were in an extremely friable condition, 

 and belonged to Turritella terebra, Cardium edule, and Murex erina- 

 ceus, as well as to a thin smooth bivalve, the genus of which could 

 not be determined. The extent or thickness of the deposit the author 

 was not able to ascertain, though he was informed that in making a 

 well at " The Wellington ", twelve yards of gravel and sand were pene- 

 trated before the new red sandstone was reached j he could not, how- 

 ever, learn if any Testacea had been noticed in making the well. 



The shelly bed was separated by a well-defined line from an over- 

 lying deposit, twenty feet thick, of the ordinary diluvium of Cheshire, 

 and consisted principally of sand, containing pebbles and boulders of 

 granite, slate, greenstone, and other rocks. 



From " The Wellington " the country slopes very gradually to the 

 Gowey, a small sluggish stream which conveys the drainage of this 

 part of Cheshire to the river Mersey, and empties itself into that 

 river near the village of Ince. The author then quotes some extracts 

 from the Red Book of St. Warburgh's Abbey, given in " Ormerod's 

 Topographical Account of Cheshire," stating that in Wyrall, in the 

 manor of Ynes, the sea had removed thirty caracates of land, and 

 was daily destroying more : the author also states that, according to 

 popular tradition, the sea once occupied a large portion of the valley 

 at the foot of the Forest Hills. 



From the above details, and from a careful examination of all the 

 facts he could collect, he gives the following, as the conclusions at 

 which he has arrived : 



1st. That the bed of gravel was deposited on the shore of the an- 

 cient sea, at that period extending to the base of the Forest Hills. 



2nd. That this has occurred since the existence of some of the spe- 

 cies of shells now inhabiting our seas. 



3rd. That an alteration in the relative levels of land and sea, to 

 the amount of seventy feet, has taken place since its deposition. 



4th. That it has been covered by an accumulation of diluvium 

 twenty feet in thickness. 



A communication was lastly read, entitled " Notice of a newly dis- 

 covered gigantic Reptile;" by the Rev. William Buckland, D.D., 

 F.G.S., &c. 



The remains noticed in this communication were discovered near 

 Buckingham in a bed of clay immediately above the cornbrash ; and 

 the author states that their preservation is owing to the zeal of Wil- 

 liam Stowe, Esq., of that town. The principal bone is a caudal ver- 

 tebra of a reptile larger than the Iguanodon. It measures about six 

 inches in its longitudinal diameter, and six inches in the vertical and 

 largest transverse diameters of its articulating faces. Both these 

 faces are slightly convex, and are smallest on the lower side, and 



