145 



distributed, less so though in the Shales than in the Limestones. I turned over- 

 hundreds of slabs of the latter, which at DuiUey swarm with organic remains, 

 and only remarked a few smaU corals, Bryozoa and shells, and those chiefly 

 Atrypa, Spirifer, Leptana. Broken stems of Encrinites are abundant, but only 

 once did I discover any portion, even of a head. As I carefuUy searched over 

 a very wide extent of the calcareous pori;ion of the series, the result is certainly 

 remarkable, for had my investigations been limited to only a few quarries, the 

 comparative rarity of many genera and species more or less common elsewhere 

 would not be unusual, since certain locaUties with favourable conditions are 

 often prolific in forms which are usuaUy rare, as in the case of the abundant star 

 tish in the Ludlow formation at Leintwardine. A rather unusual fossU from 

 the PalEeozoic rocks of this district is a set of homy hooks of some Cephalopod, 

 which I found in a nodule in the Wenlock Limestone at Dormington, which 

 although not uncommon in the Lias, have not, I beUeve, been before detected 

 in the SUurian formation. From the abundance of Orthoceratites it may be 

 inferred that these homy hooks belonged probably to the animal which inha- 

 bited these sheUs, and theii- preservation is due to their horny nature, the 

 softer parts of the moUusc having perished, the former being at present, as far 

 as I am aware, the first and only trace of the animal in the more ancient 

 rocks. The lower "Wenlock, or Woolhope limestone, contains portions of 

 Trilobites, especially Bumastm Barriensis and Homalonotus cylindricus (N.S.), 

 the latter never entire, the former very rarely so, and a few molluscs, but 

 by no means abundant. IHr, Dixon, in speaking of the Llandovery limestone, 

 remarks that it would be a great find to discover any fossils in the Woolhope 

 area. Though much less abundant than at May Hill and elsewhere, I found a 

 few of the characteristic species, viz., Petraia Una, Pcntamerus oUongus, and 

 the rarer Stricklandina reus, in blocks of sandstone on the slope of HaughWood, 

 just above Scutterdine, and also in a field near Woolhope. In a narrow lane 

 near Littlehope a very fail- section is exposed in the fossiliferous bands, the best 

 section I have seen in the district, though it also crops out on the road side 

 near the Common at Woolhope. Sections being very few, it is desirable to 

 note these. 



The conclusion at which I arrive, then, in the Woolhope Silurian area, 

 is that on the whole the CceUntreata form here, aa in certain portions of 

 the Old Red (Marine Devonian) in Devonshire, the chief and most abundant 

 representatives of the life of the period, though at the same time it is rather 

 difficult to understand why there should not have been as great a variety of 

 MoUuscs, Cmstacea, and Radiata as elsewhere, other concUtions being apparently 

 equal. One interesting exception is to be noted in the Do-wnton sandstone 

 (passage beds so caUed) in a smaU section exposed at Purton, near Stoke Edith, 

 where remains of Pterygotus and Euripterus abound, intermingled with frequent 

 fragments of vegetable matter, including some smaU preserved seed vessels, a few 

 small semivalves, and a coral. In a thin band of sandy shale, I was fortunate 



