256 



might at once be stopped. Still as these beds had never been 

 opened up in this district, I felt only too glad to have an oppor- 

 tunity for their examination. Considering what remarkable 

 remains they had yielded elsewhere, as these beds had evidently 

 been deposited under less favourable conditions, I did not expect 

 them to be so rich as those of the same age in the West of 

 England, which though only of an aggregate thickness of twenty 

 feet had yielded me the wonderful series of six hundred species, 

 including the reptiles, fish, Crustacea, insects and moUusca in my 

 museum at the Institution. Some of these I felt sure in a denp 

 well sinking would be disentombed. I was to be informed when 

 the work commenced, and to have samples of the beds preserved 

 for me. Some months' delay arose before the work commenced, 

 when, alas ! I learnt that, without any intimation to me, the 

 sinking was going on, and at my first visit had been carried 

 down forty-five feet, so that it was impossible for me to give the 

 beds the close critical examination I had desired. 



The well was in the Upper Hedgemead road, not far below the 

 western end of Camden Crescent. The first twenty feet were in 

 detritus, or material taken from the excavation of the cellars 

 above, with occasional pieces of dressed freestone, supposed to 

 have been pushed down the slope from the giving way of the 

 arches supporting the roadway in front of the houses, which had 

 several times to be renewed, soon after their erection. This 

 detritus rested on unmistakeable Upper Lias Clay, thinly but 

 densely laminated, coming out in thick blocks, and continuing 

 till near the base, when layers of somewhat irregular blue stone 

 succeeded with intermediate beds of clay. The Marlstone or top 

 bed of the Middle Lias, having organic remains difi"ering from 

 those in the beds above, was the last reached, at a depth of 65 

 feet, but its thickness was not proved. I did not expect water 

 would be found in these beds, but at the junction at the top, 

 under the twenty feet of debris, a considerable quantity showed 

 itself, which should at once have been turned into the nearest 



