208 



feature to be noticed, too, consists in the occurrence of repre- 

 sentatives of the Oitrea and Angulatus beds, which are mostly 

 •wanting in this immediate neighbourhood, between the White Lias 

 and the blue beds of the Lima and BucUandi series ; the latter 

 generally resting unconformably upon the White Lias. With this 

 general statement of the facies of the section I will now proceed to 

 give in detail a measurement of the various beds, prefacing this 

 with the remark that I have not contented myself with one single 

 measurement only, but have repeatedly gone over the beds, line in 

 hand, and have thus checked one measurement by another (vide 

 section). 



Commencing with the basement beds at the N.W. end of the 

 cutting ; soon after the bank had been cut down to its present level, 

 the red marls of the Keuper were just visible at the comer of the 

 steep embankment abutting against the blue shales. Lately, 

 however, they have been concealed by the talus and rapid growth 

 of vegetation, and can now only be traced by a few scattered 

 fragments here and there. At this point, too, can only be seen 

 (owing to the dip of the beds in a S.E. direction) the thin repre- 

 sentative of the fish bed (No. \.) which consists of a slightly pyritous 

 dark blue limestone, assuming a rhomboidal form, and lying about 

 one foot below the level of the present rails. Pecten valonienm, fish 

 scales, vertebrse, and other bones occur in it. The rhomboidal slabs 

 are stained red around their edges, to the extent of about half- 

 an-inch, with peroxide of iron. 



To the fish bed succeed the light blue shales and clays under- 

 lying the Cotham marble, divided in the centre by a remarkable 

 band of gray marlstone (No. 3.) about 8 inches in thickness. In 

 some places the top surface of this band has the appearance of ripple 

 marks, in others it consists of a coarsely arenaceous film, passing 

 almost into a fine conglomerate, with quartz pebbles about the size 

 of a small pea. On breaking it up, portions near the centre are 

 crystalline, similar in texture and pinkish colour to some of the 

 White Lias beds above ; from this crystalline state it becomes 

 marly towards the base. In the top arenaceous film, and here and 

 there in the crystalline poi-tion, I found fragments of fish scales, 

 teeth of Sauricthys acuminatus, and a portion of a small jaw, which 



