11 
cases certain strata bear a remarkable affinity, and it is 
‘in this more altered and abnormal condition of the Lias 
that an almost new and very interesting not only marine 
but terrestrial and freshwater fauna has been obtained, 
the former of which is closely allied to certain deposits of 
similar age, and resting immediately on older rocks in 
France. Most of ihe more remarkable fossils have been 
detected in fissures in the carboniferous limestone of the 
Mendips and elsewhere, in one case ata depth of 260 feet, 
and the material filling up these cracks has been by its 
geological contents proved to be of Liassic age, a result 
hitherto unsuspected. In this he has discovered teeth of 
Mammalia (Microlestes), bones of a large land reptile 
(Scelidosauras), three genera of land shells belonging to 
new species, a seed vessel of chara (a freshwater plant), 
and two freshwater shells (Valvata and Planorbis), for the 
first time in the Lias. This is the earliest evidence 
afforded of any terrestrial pulmoniferous mollusks between 
the Tertiary formation and the coal, in which my friend 
Dr. Dawson, Principal of the College at Montreal, detected 
a small Pupa, and another new land shell (Zonites) in 
the carboniferous series of Nova Scotia. In addition to 
these there are a large assemblage of marine shells, chiefly 
small univalves, some few of which belong to new species, 
and others had been only previously noticed in con- 
temporaneous deposits on the continent, chiefly in France. 
Of corals, too, a very large number are recorded, a com- 
paratively small suite having been previously known in the 
Lias. In this important paper the author questions the 
value of zones of zoological life, in which I entirely concur, 
and observes that ‘‘ however convenient it may be to refer 
eertain forms to marked horizons, such as those known 
