134 



operation of the breakwater commenced by tbe late Earl Fitzhardinge, 

 land is rapidly forming here, and the current has been diverted to the 

 Forest of Dean side. The alluvial deposit behind the breakwater, in the 

 direction of our course, from its yet unstable character, renders it difficult 

 to trace the liassic beds from their immediate line of contact with the 

 Devonian : but at the distance of about half a mile from the Inn, they 

 become accessible, and, notwithstanding many slips of the soil, allow 

 their strata to be tabulated, from highwater mark, in the following 

 ascending order : 



Stiff and somewhat laminated clays, containing young Ammonites, 

 an occasional Belemnite, Sjnrifer Waleottii, the Gryphceu incurva 

 in all its varieties . . . . . . . . . 2 to 3 ft. 



• Limestone band, containing Nautilus, Am. Conybeari, Rhynchonella, 



Spirifer, Lima, Pecten, Modiola, &c. . . . . .10 inches 



Distinctly laminated clays, which become lighter in colour upwards 12 to 14 ft. 



Limestone band . . . . . . . . . . 8 to 10 in. 



Stiff blue clay, varying in thickness, upon which repose oolitic 

 gravel and vegetable soil 



Few scenes can more vividly impress themselves upon the mind 

 of a young geologist, than that which presents itself here, after a 

 fall of the rock, and its exposure for a few weeks to the tidal and 

 atmospheric action. The beach is sometimes strewn with the fossUs of 

 which a list is subjoined, in the finest possilile condition, more esjiecially 

 as regards Gryphites, which are found of every type conceivable within 

 ■ the limits of one species ; and that one only exists here, the writer has 

 endeavoured to prove in a former paper, now forming a part of the 

 Transactions of the Cotteswold Naturalists' Club. 



Next in order, as regards number and state of presei-vation, come the 

 Ammonites and NautUi, some of which are of veiy large dimensions. A 

 portion of a Nautilus, which must have been at least eighteen inches in 

 diameter, is now lying before us, and Am. obtusus of not inferior size. 

 The smaller fossils may easily be separated from their stony matrix with 

 a light hammer and small chisel, but the only safe mode of proceeding 

 with s\ich specimens as those above-named, is to expose to the alternate 

 action of tide and frost, the blocks in which they lie embedded, by which 

 method some of the best specimens known from this locality have 

 been obtained. From the fact of the chambers of the larger Nautili and 

 Belenmites being either partially hollow, or filled with crystals of 

 carbonate of lime, combined with the extremely brittle character of the 

 coating of petrified shelly matter which covers, and separates them, the 

 blow of a hammer, however skilfully applied, almost invariably fractures 

 them irreparably. 



Those cui'ious concretions to which no English name has yet been 



