134 ORGANISMS FROM THE RECENTLY-DISCOVERED 



grasped the situation, and the site which had been busy with the 

 haunts of man, and cheerful with the hum of conversational 

 delight, became a world of tiny molluscs and waving rushes, land 

 and water teeming with real but less apparent life. The relics 

 of this subsequent Hfe I am desirous to bring before our readers. 



During the excavations on the site of the Roman Bath last 

 year, our fellow member, Mr. Bartrum, who was then Mayor of 

 the city, introduced me to a bank of mud resting upon the floor 

 of the bath, and situated immediately under the Poor-Law Offices. 

 From this bank of firm mud the organisms which form the subject 

 of the present paper were selected. It was from eight to nine feet 

 deep, as shown in the accompanying plate, and made up of clearly- 

 defined strata. At the bottom, upon the floor of the bath, lay the 

 broken Roman tiles which once covered its roof, and thus, all that 

 was found above them must have been the accumulations of the 

 centuries which intervened between the departure of the Romans 

 and the decay of their noble work, and the more modern times 

 when buildings became erected on the identical, but owing to 

 the deposits, on the more elevated site. Above the tiles 

 came a bank of firm black mud from five to six feet in depth, 

 filled with thousands of fresh-water shells, their white forms 

 contrasting with the dark earth so strikingly, that even to an 

 ordinary observer, the bank was very attractive. Above this 

 mud a stratum of vegetable deposit was found about two feet 

 thick, black in colour, and moist and flaky in character. Another 

 curious mass of vegetation lay upon the latter, greenish in colour, 

 and light in weight, and, under the microscope, it was found to be 

 principafly composed of hollow fragments of a cylindrical shape. 

 Above this stratum a mass of wood was found embedded in mud 

 and sand, but as no rootlets were found, the gentlemen who sur- 

 veyed the spot considered that these were originally bundles of 

 hazel-wood, thrown upon the marshy ground to form a foundation 

 for the subsequent buildings which became erected upon the spot. 

 Each of the branches was pressed out of the usual cylindrical into 

 an oval shape, and was of a very soft and moist character. The 

 whole mass of wood had evidently been used as fascines. Above 

 this stratum the foundations of the present buildings commenced. 



The Roman occupation of Bath probably ranged from a.d. 50 



