12 
Mr John Jones and myself, and in the 35 feet the difference in 
measurement was only three inches. Mr Etheridge, however, 
included the Ostrea bed at the top, in the Rhetic, while we 
were disposed to place it at the base of the Lower Lias, and he 
further included over 14 feet of the Tea-green marls as belong- 
ing to the Rhetic. With regard to the latter beds, Mr 
Etheridge had fuller information than we possessed from having 
examined the same series at Watchett, Penarth, and other 
places where they are much developed. There is still, however, a 
difference of opinion upon the subject, as most geologists 
consider they belong to the Keuper. I would, however, 
mention two interesting matters in relation to these beds. 
Many years since—over thirty—Mr R. F. Tomes visited 
the section with Mr John Jones and myself, and when we 
came to the cream-coloured band of limestone he said at once 
from observations he had made in Warwickshire, “ This is the 
Estheria bed.’’ We replied sceptically it might be, but that we 
had broken up a great deal of it without finding any organic 
remains. “ Well,” he replied, “I don’t mean to leave until I 
have found some,” and in about five minutes he knocked out a 
fine cluster. The moral to be drawn from this is, “ Never rely 
too much upon negative evidence in geology,” and I would 
advise all young workers in the science to answer under like 
circumstances that “at present the fossil has not been found.” 
The second case occurred in 1875, when the students of the 
School of Science were induced to visit the section after hearing 
a lecture of mine upon these beds. Theyfound several specimens 
of the Brittle Starfish (Ophiolepis Damesii), a fossil then new 
to this country. Only twelve months before Dr Wright had 
received a specimen from similar beds at Hildesheim, in Prussia. 
The finding of this little fossil, Dr Wright thought, was 
decisive of the marine character of the bed in which it occurred. 
The President then called upon Professor Harker to 
explain the paleontology of the beds. Professor Harker said 
that the chief interest which attached to the fossils of the 
Rhetic Beds was centred in the vertebrate remains, which 
comprised 30 species of fishes, five reptiles, and one mammal 
