NOTES ON THE LIAS IN THE NEIGHBOURHOOD OF RADSTOCK 171 



IVe pass now to the two top beds, which are interesting 

 from the extraordinary abundance of Bpiriferina Walcottii 

 which the clay at the top contains. We shall be able to 

 recognise this bed again all through the district, both lithologi- 

 cally and by the fossils contained therein. We have used letters, 

 arbitrarily chosen, for marking such beds as we have observed in 

 more than one quarry — the same let*:er to signify identity of bed 

 throughout. Mr. Moore, translating a German designation literally, 

 has called this the " Spirifer-bank." Thus we have had no difficulty 

 in finding the most important Brachiopod of the district : the 

 question then comes — Where are we to classify bed (i) ? Mr. 

 Moore places it in the L. Lias, and there is no doubt but that he 

 is perfectly right. Tracing this bed to other quarries we find 

 fossils in it which lead us to place it in the Bucklandi zone, but 

 this we shall have to refer to again. This was one of the 

 questions we had to settle — the exact position of Spiriferina 

 Walcottii — and we find that the specimens thereof in the Bristol 

 Museum have been wrongly placed in the Middle Lias. If we turn 

 to the catalogue of fossils in the Museum at Jermyn Street"^' we 

 find a similar misapprehension (/ <?. p. 183). We maintain that 

 the Survey palaeontologist has wrongly catalogued this species 

 from the M. Lias of Eadstock and omitted it from the L. Lias. 

 It is true that we have found this species in imperfect specimens 

 in the M. Lias of Banbury, and Mr. Day has noticed it from the 

 M. Lias of Charmouth, but we have not noticed it in this position 

 in our present district ; at all events, failing to refer Eadstock 

 specimens to the L. Lias is a palpable omission. 



This case of 28 feet for the L. Lias is the largest development 

 of these beds that we have met with round Eadstock. The 

 lithological position of the beds, however, is considerably difi'erent 

 from that of the Bristol Lias. 



The following quarry has yielded me more fossils in situ than 

 most of the others ; it is, therefore, introduced here as giving 

 much information concerning the zones of life : — 



* Catalogue of collection of fossils in the Museum, of Practical Geology. 

 By T. H. Huxley, F.E.S., and R. Etheridge, E.G.S., 1865. 



