230 



The thin brown shales, No. 19, which measure 18 inches, 

 the scattered scales and remains of Fish over their severa 

 serve to distinguish and separate the Modiola minima bed, 

 those immediately below. This uppermost bed in the 

 at Westbury Cliff is a dull pale brown or grey har 

 with Modiola ndnima and Ostrea liassica abundant 

 through it. So closely allied to the Lias in character is th 

 that it reqiiires us only to find an Ammonite to determi 

 Lias age.* 



The generalizations deducible from the foregoing brief 

 the strata and organic I'emaius and their conditions at Gf 

 numerous and important, more so perhaps than we are a1 

 to believe; and it is obvious, from the amount of interes 

 Rhsetic beds and the whole subject has of late create 

 diversity of opinion will and must exist with relation to th 

 of these beds in time, especially when we consider that 

 perhaps in England, in one section, a complete sequence of th 

 both as regards the life or organic contents, or the physj 

 by which to estimate or correlate with continental secti 

 physical condition we cannot expect to obtain, owing to t 

 nomena attending deposition of sedimentary matter over lai 

 the earth's surface, and which diversity must necessarily occi 

 to prevent a uniform condition of things over wide spread ; 

 and connected areas. On the other hand we may, howeve 

 through strict research and patient analysis, the life s 

 distribution of the sjsecies in time, constituting the faxma o 

 remarkable rocks. For it is certain that in England, with f 

 we possess most of the forms known to occur in beds ' 

 Europe, thus clearly defining that the Ehsetic species, as 

 distribution in space, had a very wide range, and at t 

 demanding from us extended notions of time for the di 

 distribution of the species over a large portion of Europ 

 Asia; and looking at the cosmopolitan distribution of s 

 Avicida contorta, Fecten Valoniensis, Cardium Rhcetici 

 arenicola, &c., and their vibiquitous condition, or vast al 

 vidually in the rocks, both in our own country and Eui 

 definite arrangements in zones almost illustrating epochs 



* A most remarkable zone in the Patchv/ay district, its upper p 

 fossihferous ; Pholodovvja glabra, Unicardium, Ostrea liassica, J\ 

 Lima, a Cardium (nov. .sp.) all occurring in great abundance. 



