12 
and development in Warwickshire. It is a hard white limestone called 
on this account “ white lias” the surface being much water worn and 
eroded, and containing a large quantity of iron. It immediately 
underlies the “lima beds” at Harbury, where it rises to the surface 
and occupies a considerable area in several parts of the county, 
especially near Rugby, at Long Itchington, Newbold, Whitnash, and 
is seen in many quarries south and east of Stratford. It may just be 
mentioned that owing to the recent researches in these lowest beds of 
the Lias,it is proposed to separate them altogether from that formation 
and to place them with the upper division of the New red Sandstone 
under the title of ‘Rhcetic beds.’ This refers specially to the series 
below the ‘insect beds, and on the whole they contain a peculiar 
and distinctive suite of organic remains, most of which are 
more nearly related to the Trias, or New red Sandstone, than the Lias 
hence the separation. The white Lias is much more largely developed 
in Warwickshire and Somersetshire, and is very poorly represented in 
Gloucestershire; where, however, the lower division is much more 
extended. A few words must be added on the fossils of the Lias 
generally. These are on the whole largely distributed through the 
whole of the strata referred to, and none of them are entirely without 
some traces of life. They consist mainly of marine shells and a few 
corals, all of extinct species, and for the most part distinct from the 
superior and inferior formations. A great variety of fish have also 
been met with, often beautifully preserved and a few crustacea, some 
of which resemble the recent cray fish, but the most remarkable of all 
the relics of the ancient world of this period are the large enalio-saurians 
which, from their anatomical structure and habits, were the most 
formidable and predaceous monsters of the deep. There is, perhaps, 
no geological period more prolific in the remains of these animals than 
the Lias, and though other and similar reptiles occur in other forma- 
tions, with the exception of the Wealden, we have some justification 
in calling this the age of reptiles. The Wealden is a much later de- 
posit than the Lias, and the gigantic lizards which characterized it are 
terrestrial. Although a particular portion of the Lias is marked by the 
more frequent presence of saurians, they occur in greater or less 
abundance throughout the whole of it. Itis chiefly from these lower 
beds, in which they are most prevalent that numerous and varied 
remains of insects have been discovered, especially in the quarries at 
Wilmcote, Binton, and Grafton, in this county. These and a few 
traces of land plants, such as ferns and drift wood, are the only evi- 
dence we have of the inhabitants of the earth at this epoch. Scanty 
enough, but of special interest, because it proves that the land had its 
inhabitants as well the sea, and though we have at present only a partial 
and imperfect record of the ancient world, we may conclude that insects 
and plants were not the only forms of life with which it was clothed, 
and some day a much more extensive fauna and flora may be found. 
The insects though unusually fragmentary are sometimes found entire, 
especially the coleoptera, but generally they consist of detached wings, . 
beautifully preserved, amongst which the libellulide predominate. 
We may assume that they were carried with the plants by a large river 
into the sea, and deposited in the mud of the Lias at no great distance 
