144 
The scarcity of organic remains in the cores brought up, or, at 
least, in those specimens which I had the opportunity of 
examining, was rather remarkable ; however, sufficient evidence 
was forthcoming in the cores (now on the table before you) to 
indicate the different horizons passed through, ¢.g., in the cores 
numbered “154’” and “177’,” and named correctly “Blue Lias 
Rock,” are traces of fish scales, &c., characteristic of the Lower 
Lias beds. Of the intervening beds between the Lower Lias and 
the top of the Keuper Marls, i.¢., the Rhetic beds, which 
the late Chas. Moore discovered in our neighbourhood, but 
very scanty evidence existed ; enough, however, to show that 
they were then in their usual position, the core marked “ 225” 
and named “ White limestone,” being evidently a portion of the . 
White Lias, which is considered as the upper portion of those 
beds ; all traces of the underlying shales and clays with their 
contained fossils having probably been mashed up into a muddy 
pulp by the borer and so washed away. On making enquiry, 
however, whether any of the pyritous bone bed had been found, 
a little bit of limestone was given me, numbered “ 233,” which was 
at once recognised as a portion of the bone bed at the base of the 
Rhetics. A vein of detached sparkling crystals (evidently 
considered by those who had preserved the specimen as precious 
metal, probably gold) being characteristic of the iron pyrites so 
abundant in the bone bed, The remaining 179’ consisted, as the 
section shows, of “ Red Marls, Red rock and Conglomerate,” these 
cores with the latter label on them, are from the Gypsum beds 
usually found in the Keuper Marls, and running through them in 
strings and patches. The frequent occurrence of these latter beds 
through a thickness of 133’ is probably accounted for by the fact 
of the borer piercing vertical strings or veins of this mineral and 
thus apparently presenting a thickness greater than usual. 
The most interesting geological feature in this boring is the 
meeting with the Pennant rock at the base. Miners after passing 
through the “Red Ground,” expect to win coal, but in this 
