540 Geological Society : Mr. Strickland 



GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



[Continued from p. 378.] 



Dec. 15, A paper "On the Glacia- diluvial Phenomena in Snow- 

 1841. -^*- donia and the adjacent parts of North Wales," by 

 the Rev. Prof. Buckland, D.D., F.G.S., &c. was first read. 



A paper was afterwards read, " On the occurrence of the Bristol 

 Bone-Bed in the Lower Lias near Tewkesbury," by Hugh Edwin 

 Strickland, Esq., F.G.S. 



After alluding to the occurrence of the bone-bed at various places 

 between Westbury and Watchett, also at Golden Cliff and St. Hilaiy 

 in Glamorganshire, and at Axmouth, Mr. Strickland proceeds to 

 describe its characters at three newly-discovered localities, many 

 miles to the north of the points previously known, namely, Coomb 

 Hill, between Tewkesbury and Gloucester, Wainlode Cliff, and 

 Bushley. 



1. Coomb Hill, four miles south of Teiokesbury* . — In lowering the 

 road through the lias escarpment during the summer of 1841 a con- 

 siderable surface of the bone-bed was exposed, and its contents were 

 rescued from destruction by Mr. Dudfield of Tewkesbury. The fol- 

 lowing section is given by Mr. Strickland : — Ft. in. 



1 . Yellow clay 2 



2. Lias limestone 3 



3. Yellow clay 5 



4. Nodules of lias limestone 6 



5. Brown clay 14 



6. Impure pyritic limestone with Pectens and 



small bivalves 6 



7. Black laminated clay 8 



8. Hard, grey pyritic limestone 2 



9. Black laminated clay 1 



10. Greyish sandstone 2 



1 1 . Black laminated clay 1 6 



12. Bone-bed 1 



13. Black laminated clay 3 6 



14. Compact, angular, greenish marl 25 



15. Red marl 3 



Dip about 12° east. 64 8 



The bone-bed, No. 12, rarely exceeds one inch in thickness, and 

 frequently thins out to less than a quarter of an inch. It consists in 

 some places chiefly of scales, teeth and bones of fishes, and small 

 coprolites cemented by iron pyrites, but in others the organic re- 

 mains are rare, and are replaced by a whitish micaceous sandstone. 

 The osseous fragments, Mr. Strickland states, have the appearance 

 of having been washed into the hollows of a rippled surface of clay, 



* Mr. Murchison has noticed the section formerly exposed in this 

 escarpment, but at the time he examined the district, Mr. Strickland says, 

 the banks were obscured by dehris, and the bone-bed did not attract his 

 attention. See Mr. Murchison's Account of the Geology of Cheltenham, 

 p. 24, plate, fig. 1, and Silurian System, pp. 20, 29, pi. 29, fig. 1. 



