2 THE RHATIC BEDS. 
speaking were classed with the Lower Lias, but about that 
time Dr. Wright, of Cheltenham, and Mr. Moore, called atten- 
tion to their palzontological resemblance to certain beds of 
great thickness occurring in the Rheetian Alps of Lombardy, 
which had already been recognised as passage beds between. 
the Trias and the Lias of that part of Europe. It was in the 
south of England that the true nature of these beds was 
demonstrated, and it was there that they were first differentiated 
from the Lower Lias, with which they had previously been con- 
founded, but it was not long before geologists found that in 
all parts of England, where the junction of the two formations 
was exposed, they were invariably present, intercalated 
between the New Red Marls and the Lias. The name by which 
these beds are more commonly known is the A/@tics, from their 
correlation with the Alpine beds before referred to ; but, deeming 
it expedient to adopt a name borrowed from some British locality, 
the Geological Survey, mainly, I learn, on the recommendation of 
Mr. Bristowe and Mr. Etheridge, named them the Penarth Beds, 
from the fact that they are so well developed and exposed in the 
cliffs of Penarth, in Glamorganshire. 
The Rhetic Beds, with the overlying Lias, stretched at one 
time over considerable areas, from which they are now absent. 
This is amply proved by the existence of outliers, which have 
been separated from the main portion of the formation by long 
continued denuding action. These outliers indicate the previous 
extension of the Rheetics, just as a solitary sea-stack, composed 
of the same rocks as those of the neighbouring shore, is a witness 
to the previous existence of land which extended further seaward. 
Of these Rhetic outliers we have some very interesting 
examples a few miles to the west of our town, capping the highest 
portions of Needwood Forest. Two of these patches are laid 
down as you see by the Geological Survey. The third occurs about 
a quarter of a mile beyond Henhurst Wood, and was originally 
discovered by my father. The boundaries of this particular out- 
lier, which is smaller than the other two, have still to be traced. 
On the map before you the Rheetics are coloured as Lias, and, I 
