221 
change was taking place from the peculiar fauna of the Trias 
on the one hand to that of the Lias on the other, and that 
they represented (in England at least) those passage beds which 
are always so instructive, and to which the attention of 
geologists is so profitably directed. His views, though opposed 
for a time by those in authority, at length prevailed, and are 
now generally accepted, and indeed his fame may be said to 
have been due in no slight degree to his intimate acquaintance 
with these particular beds. You must pardon me if I have 
dwelt too long upon this point, but experience tells me that 
often the work of a past generation is forgotten by those who 
come after, and great discoveries are treated as a portion of 
the every-day stock of knowledge, whilst the discoverers them- 
selves remain forgotten, if not ignored altogether. 
I must now pass on to a detailed description of the Section. 
Owing apparently to the greasy nature of the clays forming the 
base of the Rheetic beds near Kelston the north side of the small 
cutting there has from time to time given way, and several slips 
have occurred. To obviate this the railway authorities have been 
cutting down the bank to a more gradual slope of some 26°. 
This work has re-opened a good section of beds, extending 
upwards from the Red Sandstones and Marl of the Keuper 
formation to the bottom beds of the Lower Lias, and thus 
another locality can be added to those already described by 
Mr. Moore and myself, to show how persistent the presence of 
these clays containing a peculiar fauna are, whenever a suitable 
exposure takes place. So that wherever you see those remark- 
able White Lias beds you may feel sure that the so-called 
“ Avicula contorta” shales are to be found beneath. The cutting 
extends in a north-west and south-east direction, measuring about 
400 paces, and assumes rather an anticlinal form, the dark 
clays being thicker at the south-east end nearest Bath, and dying 
out, or rather dipping away, at the other end, so that about 180 
paces only of these beds are exposed. I have visited the section 
\ 
