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“‘on the shore, accidental, so to speak, in the irregularities 
“in long nearly flat shores or wide estuaries. Their mechanical 
“origin is plainly seen under the microscope, and many of the 
“rains are hollow, though I detect no Foraminifera, which are 
“rare in the Inferior Oolite. In the Isle of Wight (Colwall 
“‘Bay) you may see the finest comminuted shells in rills and 
““minute pools an inch or two deep, left by the gentle motion 
“of the water, just as in your Horsepool rock. When covered 
“up, as they certainly are under certain conditions, they are 
“very different to the continuing mud or sand, or sandy rock 
“itself, but nevertheless of the same age to a day. I have 
“shown your specimens to many, and the theory of their 
“derivation from any pre-existing Oolite or Jurassic rock, 
“would not be entertained, as being an impossibility ; if they 
‘‘had been Carboniferous limestone, or Triassic masses, or any- 
“thing foreign to the Oolite (which they are not), then some 
“clue to their foreign origin might have been furnished.” 
The views of Professor Etheridge and the eminent friends 
whom he has consulted are justly entitled to be seriously 
weighed, and I naturally feel some hesitation in advancing 
arguments in opposition to, or in modification of them. I must, 
however, remark :— | 
First.—There is the undoubted presence of the small 
quartz pebbles, which clearly show they must have been 
subjected to a considerable amount of attrition since they were 
brought from the rock in which they were derived—I believe the 
Forest of Dean—; they certainly form no part of the original 
Oolite. 
Again, I am not prepared to admit that the Lower Oolites 
have not in course of deposition had some of their beds broken 
up and re-deposited. Take the Hard Brown Stone bed which 
is in a great measure a shelly detritus. This admits of but 
two explanations. Hither the shells must first have been 
quietly deposited and afterwards subjected to violent wave 
action, or they must have been derived from a bed which had 
been deposited and then broken up and re-arranged as we now 
see it. Moreover, if you look at the character of these small 
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