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Bhyn. spinosa is plentiful, and in the crevices of the rock an occa- 
sional example may be observed with the spines attached, though 
not easy of extraction. ‘To these ‘‘Trigonia and Spinosa grits” 
succeed about 22 or 24 feet of impure bastard freestones, very much 
fractured and disjointed, and more or lessrubbly and disintegrated 
in their upper portions—these beds are comparatively devoid of 
fossils, a small form of Terebratula perovalis appearing the most 
frequent. 
The following list of fossils from the ‘“‘ basement-bed” will serve 
in some degree as a guide to the character of the deposit :-— 
Lima proboscidea. Ostrea. 
Trigonia costata. Turbo capitaneus. 
Trigonia, 2 species. Natica. 
Pecten. Rhyn. spinosa. 
Gryphea Buckmanni. obsoleta. 
Gresslya adducta. —— inconstans. 
Pholodomya, 2 species. Terebratula perovalis. 
Trichites, abundant. Serpule, abundant. 
Nautili and Ammonites portions, but not common. 
For this list, which does not pretend to give more than a mere 
outline of the contents of the bedsin question, I am mainly indebted 
to Mr. Moore; but doubtless a careful examination would yield a 
far larger series to any geologist who could spare time for their 
investigation. 
Besides the sections just described in detail at Charleombe and 
Lympley Stoke, I examined detached portions of the lower beds of 
the Inferior Oolite at several points around Bath, and at the village 
of Turley, about seven miles from thence, just above the quarries at 
Meadgate, and found the ‘‘ Trigonia and spinosa grits” forming the 
basement-bed, and resting immediately on the ‘‘Sands.” 
The question that naturally presents itself to the mind of a 
Cotteswold Geologist, upon areview of the foregoing considerations, 
is,—what is the position occupied by these Bath Oolites, relatively 
to the great development of the same beds in the neighbourhood of 
Cheltenham and Gloucester? Our able colleague, Mr. Lycett, in 
his clear and intelligent work on the Cotteswold Hills, divides the 
Inferior Oolites in that district into three stages, distinguished by 
their characteristic Brachiopods; the Jowest of which is designated 
as the Cynocephala Stage; the middle as the Fimbria Stage ; and the 
highest as the Spinosa Stage. Hence, we should conclude, if this 
arrangement be generally applicable, that in the neighbourhood of 
Bath the two lower stages of the Cotteswold Oolites have thinned 
out, leaving a special development of the Sprnosa Stage, as the 
* representative of the entire group, and this may possibly prove to be 
the case; but, in order satisfactorily to ascertain this point, it will be 
necessary to trace out the beds of the Inferior Oolite, from their area 
of greatest development in the neighbourhood of Cheltenham, Stroud, 
and Gloucester, to the position of diminished importance which they 
occupy in the neighbourhood of Bath. 
VoL, 1. R 
