148 



eqtiivalents of our zone of Ammonites angulatus, — the position 

 I assigned to Isastrcea Murchisonce, Wr., ten years ago, from 

 the Coral bed of the Isle of Skye, on the evidence of its 

 associated Cardinia concinna alone. 



Hie Inferior Oolite. — This formation has long engaged the 

 attention of different members of the Cotteswold Club, and the 

 rich fauna it contains has afforded materials for many important 

 palseontological researches. The Coral beds, hitherto described 

 in connection with the rocks in which they occur, had not 

 received the special attention they merit, until the visit to 

 Brovra's Hill last June awakened a new interest in the subject. 

 Having been, for the last 20 years, a student of these beds, and 

 collected therefrom a fine series of specimens, I was enabled to 

 supply MM. Edwaeds and Haime with most of the species 

 found in the Inferior Oolite, and figured by them in their 

 valuable Monograph of British OoHtic Corals, pubKshed by the 

 Palseontographical Society. The true position and co-relations 

 of these Coral beds, with their organic remains, I have already 

 described in different memoirs" on the Inferior Oolite. 



This formation admits of a division into three stages, each 

 characterised by a leading Ammonite, — the lower. Ammonites 

 Murchisonce; the middle. Ammonites Sum^hriesianus ; the upper. 

 Ammonites Parkinsoni. The relation of these divisions to each 

 other is well exemplified in the diagram of Cleeve Hill section, 

 given in the volume of oui* Proceedings for 1865. Of the three 

 Coral beds found in the Inferior Oolite, two belong to the zone 

 of Ammonites Murchisonce, and the tliird to the zone of Ammonites 

 Parlcinsoni. The lower reef rests upon the Pea-grit ; the middle 

 reef forms part of the Oohte Marl ; and the upper reef is built 

 on the Terehratula globata bed of the Trigonia Grit. 



Crickley Hill first afforded me the clue to the true position of 

 these Coral zones. Many years ago, in a field behind the Bell 

 Inn, I found several large massive blocks of Coralline Limestone, 

 that had long fallen from the adjoinmg escarpment, the bed of 

 which, however, was not then exposed, for debris had covered 



18 On the Sub-di\T.sions of the Inferior Oolite, Quarterly Jour, of the GeoL Soc., 

 vol. xxi, p. 13, 1860; and Additional Notes on the Cleeve Hill Section, Proceedings 

 of the Cotteswold Naturalists' Field Club for I860, p. 60. 



