97 



the hill to the Black Horse Inn, where they were joined by the 

 archaeologists, and all sat down to an excellent dinner, served 

 in the spacious summer-house attached to the inn. 



After dinner. Professor Btjckman read his paper, the object 

 of which was to shew that the " Cephalopoda-bed " of Dorset, 

 which had by various authors been considered as the represent- 

 ative of the " Cephalopoda-bed " so well known in Gloucester- 

 shire, is really the equivalent of the " Gryphite Grit " of 

 Leckhampton, and of the " Trigonia Grit " of Lineovers, and 

 hence is at least 100 feet higher in the Oolitic series than was 

 at one time supposed. 



It was further contended that the thick mass of sands beneath 

 the " Cephalopoda-bed " in Dorset, so far from being Liassic^ 

 as authors had contended, for 100 feet at least of their thickness 

 represent the Inferior Oolite beds of the mass of Leckhampton 

 and Crickley Hills, and that if, therefore, the equivalent of the 

 Gloucestershire " Cephalopoda-bed " occurs, as has been stated, 

 at Bradford Abbas and Bridport, it must be below this 100 feet 

 of sands, and not at the top of them. 



Professor Btjckman claimed to have been the first to have 

 noticed these facts, and urged that if he was right, he had 

 good reason for asserting that Oolitic Geology has been 

 incorrectly read over much of the country, both at home and 

 abroad. 



Dr. Wkight, being called upon by the President, replied in 

 a spirited and eloquent speech to the principal points in 

 Professor Btjckman' s paper, and took a comprehensive view of 

 the subject under discussion. He adhered to his views in 

 reference to the zones of life, as distinguished by certain 

 Ammonites, and urged that the questions at issue were 

 palseontological, not lithological, and could be settled on no 

 other basis. The subject was not new; his views had been 

 published years ago, and had been discussed and adopted by 

 the ablest geologists in Europe. He declined to follow Professor 

 BucKMAN into all the details of his paper; the mere enumeration 

 of such long lists of fossils would be a weariness to the flesh. 



