144 PROCEEDINGS COTTESWOLD CLUB 1903 
In Strickland’s paper “On the Occurrence of the ‘ Bristol 
Bone-bed’ in the Lias near Tewkesbury,” that author 
recorded the section then exposed,’ and this is reproduced 
in Murchison’s Geology of Cheltenham in 1844.” 
Strickland observed that the Bone-bed “rarely exceeds 
an inch in thickness, and frequently thins out in short 
distances to one-fourth of an inch or less. It consists 
chiefly of a dense mass of scales, teeth, bones, and small 
coprolites, cemented by pyrites, the golden colour of which 
contrasts beautifully with the jet-black of the animal 
remains. These osseous fragments have the appearance 
of having been washed into the hollows of a previously 
rippled surface of clay, in the same manner as we often 
see patches of coal-dust and small shells on the sea-beach. 
They have evidently been subjected to a gentle mechanical 
action, as the fragments often present broken and worn 
surfaces. The former existence of gentle currents is 
further proved by small rounded pebbles of white quartz, a 
substance of very rare occurrence in the liassic series. 
In some places the bones and coprolites compose nearly 
the whole substance of the bed; in other parts they thin 
out rapidly, and are replaced by whitish micaceous sand- 
stone. The only mollusc occurring in this bed is a 
smooth bivalve, too imperfect to be further identified.”$ 
Brodie* remarked that at Coomb Hill the “ Insect-lime- 
stone” was exposed in a small escarpment, but was neither 
extensively developed, nor rich in fossils. He noted that 
the yellow “ Cyfris-bed” underlies it, with the same 
“bivalves” and plants. Dr Wright in his paper “ On the 
Zone of Avicula Contorta, and the Lower Lias of the South 
of England,” gives Strickland’s section with paleonto- 
logical additions.5 A different reading of the section is 
1 Proc. Geol. Soc., Vol. iii. (1842), pp. 585-588; Memoirs, p. 155. 
2 p. 47. 3 Memoirs, p. 155. 4 “Fossil Insects ” (1845), p. 65. 
5 Quart, Journ. Geol. Soc., Vol. xvi. (1860), pp. 379, 380. 
