138 The Twentieth General Meeting. 



trigonia, &c., &c. The shells recorded as occurring at Swindon 

 were not numerous^ only reaching twenty species. But he found 

 that in his own collection he had increased the number to something 

 like eighty species : some of them of very great interest. After 

 passing through the Portland beds, which formed the greatest 

 thickness of the quarries, they came to the series of beds called the 

 Purbeck, also largely developed on the coast near Swanage. In 

 passing from the Portland to the Purbeck, they as it were passed from 

 one world into another. The Portland beds were marine formations, 

 and the Purbeck were fresh- water deposits. The bed of most especial 

 interest in the quarries here, was about 18 inches in thickness. 

 If he said that it was full of interesting things, .that would be 

 an exaggeration, but great care and time were required for their 

 discovery. At Swindon the beds were horizontal, but at Swanage 

 they were disturbed. At Swanage twenty-three species of Purbeck 

 mammalia had been taken, very nearly all of them little kanga- 

 roos. The remains were almost all lower jaws, and very small. 

 The strata at Swanage were vertical, but at the top of the cliff they 

 lapped over ; and here, himself and some friends had executed a 

 work not unattended with danger. While detaching a stone it gave 

 way suddenly, and struck one of his friends, who was thrown over 

 the edge of the cliff, and rolled down seventy feet. Just below that, 

 there was a sheer precipice of one hundred feet. They had to go 

 round a quarter of a mile to get at him, and of course anticipated 

 that he had been killed. What was their astonishment when after 

 shaking himself together a little he asked if he was much hurt? 

 They carried him home, and actually in four days he had not only 

 recovered, but was at work at the same spot again ! That, however, 

 was a digression. Some years ago he had examined the similar bed 

 at Swindon, and found fom* of the genera of mammals which occur 

 at Swanage. These four were small insectivorous mammals — little 

 kangaroos. There were also six or seven reptiles, one possessing 

 teeth of remarkable form. 



But now he had shown them that ages ago Swindon was actually 

 the home of a species of small kangaroos, they might ask him if 

 there were any traces of the food of these creatures. There were 



