'142 ON" riSH EEMAIIfS. 



specimens of interest in addition to those already laid before the 

 Geological Section, I shall place these incidentally before you. 



The spots which I now bring under your notice as containing 

 Fish remains, are close at hand, and for reasons which will appear 

 directly, an indication of them seems opportune at the present 

 moment. "Walking iN'.E. from Clifton across the Carboniferous 

 Limestone of the Downs, we are, owing to the considerable dip 

 of the strata, geologically speaking, rapidly descending; till 

 crossing a belt (N.E. to S.W,) of Lower Carboniferous Lime- 

 stone, we strike the line of the Old Ked. 



The first locality in which I noticed Fish remains, was 

 the lower railway cutting below Cook's Folly, and just 

 beyond the celebrated bone bed in the lowest Limestone, 

 described by Lyell as ''almost entirely made up of Ichthyo- 

 lites." After passing through the short railway cutting in 

 the shales, the Old Ked begins with thick beds of a conglom- 

 erate of rolled pebbles imbedded in a quartzose coarse sandstone. 

 The similarity of this to the Portishead Fish bed in general 

 character led me to expect Ichthyolites, and the first time I looked 

 with care (in September, 1872) some pieces were found without 

 difficulty six feet below the top of the thick beds. I may state 

 at once, that neither these nor the remains from the sites I am 

 about to name, are more than fragmentary. Hitherto the 

 question has been to me one of locality, although I do not despair 

 of the discovery, by those who have more time, of larger and 

 recognizable forms. The railway cutting is narrow, and of 

 course must not be damaged in the cause of science; besides 

 which, you have to keep close up to the rock face while the 

 trains pass by, only just leaving room : so altogether the spot is 

 not eligible for examination on a large scale with comfort. 



The second locality is in the railway cutting above, the 

 descending new line passing, of course, through the same section 

 higher up. From the Old Eed there I brought a number of 

 small but unquestionable specimens. Their depth from the 

 surface was here considerably more than I had before observed, — 



