168 



The following section is here exposed in descending order, as far as the 

 irregularities of the stratification permit them to be measured : — 



Ft. in. 

 Old ( 1. Red marls and clays containing bands of 



Red Sandstone ' whitish sandstone not calcareous 



2. Hard brownish sandstone 



3. Flaggy slightly micaceous brown sandstone ... 



4. Highly micaceous, thin-beeded brown sand- 

 stone ... ... 



Downton Sand- ! 5 - Band of cla y and rubble > about 



stones 1 ^ - Mi caceous yellow sandstone, with traces of 



carbonised plants 



17. Clay and rubble 



8. Micaceous yellow sandstone, with numerous 

 ^ fragments of carbonised plants 



9. Bones, teeth, and scales of fish, about 

 10. Gray micaceous shale, "effervescing with acid, 



and hill of fossils, about 4 



Total 29 1 



The vegetable remains in the beds Nos. 6 and 8 are interesting from 

 their extreme antiquity, but in general they present no traces of their organic 

 structure. They are merely rounded, water-worn fragments converted into a 

 coaly mass, which cracks in drying. When ignited, these fragments burn like 

 anthracite, without smoke or flame, and remain ignited uutil they are reduced 

 to a light white ash. The occurrence of vegetable remains in the corresponding 

 beds at Downton Castle is noticed by Sir E. Murchison (Silurian Sys., p. 197), 

 and near Stoke Edith and in the May Hill district by Professor rhillips (Geol. 

 Survey, vol. 2, p. 176, 188, and 312). 



The bed No. 9 is interesting as being unquestionably the representative of 

 the " Ludlow Bone Bed," described by Sir E. Murchison (ail. Syst. p. 19S). His 

 description of this deposit near Ludlow, as " a mass of scales, icthyodorulites, 

 jaws, teeth, and coprolites of fishes, united by a gingerbread cement," is precisely 

 applicable to the stratum at Hagley. The cement which unites the bones is 

 calcareous and imperfectly crystalline, exhibiting a chatoyant lustre when tke 

 eye catches the light reflected from the cleavage-planes. This singular deposit of 

 ichthyic remains seems as a thin band, in some places no thicker than a wafer, 

 and gradually increasing at other parts to about an inch and a half in thickness, 

 as if deposited by eddies in shallow depressions of the sea bottom. The conditions 

 are precisely similar to this well-known bone bed at the base of the Lias 

 formation. These minute osseous fragments are mostly much waterworn and 

 highly polished by mutual friction. Some of them are black, but the majority 

 are of a yellowish or ferruginous tint. As very few of the bones or teeth are 



