ox FISH KEMAINS. 143 



one fragment occurring many feet below the lowest shales. I am 

 informed that this section is nearly if not quite walled-up now. 



A third, an,d much more satisfactory locality for examination, is a 

 quarry which has been opened within the last few weeks upon the 

 new building land of the Stoke Hoase Estate, and in which a fish 

 bed is now exposed. Crossing Durdham Down by the Stoke Road, 

 and immediately on commencing the descent of the hill, the 

 newly laid-out road diverges to the right. Por several years 

 past I have picked up pieces of Old Eed with Eish remains on 

 this road ; but in October of '72 first saw these in the rock in 

 situ. The new quarry is to the "W. of this road, near a small 

 old roadside quarry containing water, and actually on the line of 

 junction between Lower Carboniferous and the Old Red. The 

 bed from which the fragments were taken, is a very coarse 

 quartzose stone, approaching conglomerate in structure. Its 

 surface lies 6 feet below the red and yellow marls of the Lower 

 Carboniferous shales. Its dip is 43^ S. by E., and its height 

 above mean sea level, 258 feet. 



The fourth spot, and one which will I think also repay 

 examination, is a quarry on the other side of the same road, about 

 100 feet distant. Here the same section is repeated, though the 

 fish bed is in its upper member not more than 3^ feet from the 

 marls. Prom this quarry the pieces which have long been seen 

 in the heaps scattered about probably came. 



"With respect to the character of these fragments, they are for 

 the most part simple plates of bone, either belonging to the head 

 covering or to scales, (the marking on which has been erased by 

 friction) and one tooth or spine. They are similar to those 

 occurring at Portishead in close proximity to the large scales of 

 S[olo2)tycliius. After the good fortune which attended careful 

 search there, I should hope that perfect and characteristic 

 specimens might be found here also. The obvious difficulty is 

 that the remains are imbedded in a pebbly stone, the movement 

 of whose particles amongst one another by the waves must have 

 tended to break up fine structures. The stratified bands which 



