209 



at first appeared to belong to an insectivorous mammal, but -whicli 

 Mr. Moore determines to be that of a fish hitherto undescribed. In 

 a baud of shale about midway between this and the Gotham marble 

 above, and which is of a somewhat darker hue than the surrounding 

 shales, the Estheria minuta first appears in nests, mixed up with 

 traces of vegetable matter ; fish scales are scattered about in the 

 shales below, and, notwithstanding the extremely fragile nature of 

 the matrix, I was successful in securing a good specimen of the tail 

 of a fish, probably Lepidotus. The surface of the laminae are in 

 some places covered with Cyprides, thus showing the quiet nature 

 of the waters in which these Entomostraca lived. 



No. 5 is a band of "Gotham marble" or "landscape stone," creamy 

 ■white in some places, in others blue, about 7 inches thick, which is 

 very well developed here. Nowhere can finer specimens of this 

 stone, with its peculiar manganese markings, be found. Though 

 persistent throughout the section, yet the bed is not continuous, 

 but, whilst maintaining the same horizon, is here and there in. 

 detached blocks with their inter-spaces filled up with clay, thus 

 establishing its concretionary character. Singularly unfossiliferous, 

 as a rule, it has yielded to me nothing but one single specimen of 

 Avicula decussata. Filling up the concretionary surface of this 

 latter comes a remarkable band of clay (No. 6.), blue at the base 

 and reddish-brown towards the top, about 6 inches thick, crowded 

 with fossils and fish scales ; the Avicula decussata (now called 

 fallax) is the most abundant, and the nacre of the fragile shell is 

 well preserved. Modiola (minima) ranges throughout, being more 

 abundant towards the top which underlies the next bed. No. 7, a 

 bed of light-blue, dense, marly stone on the top, becoming close- 

 grained and siliceous at the base, and about 7 inches thick. The 

 weathered sections of fossils in the joints of the siliceous portion 

 indicate the crowded state of the organisms within. Conchifera 

 abound. Gasteropoda become more abundant, and most of the 

 characteristic Rhoetic fossils may here be found. 



Separated from this by a band of blue clay come the lowermost 

 beds of the White lias, 5 feet thick, much broken up and rubbly, 

 with an occasionally solid bed inteiTening. The lower beds are very 

 fossiliferous, containing Lima prcecursor and Modiola minima in 



