46 ftEVIEW — CORRKSPONDENCE. 



lower beds of the Waterstoues resting on a denuded surface of the 

 "Basement Beds" of the Keuper. 



The lowest stratum of the Waterstones was a sandstone about a 

 foot thick, with streaks of red and green marl, and a seam of pebbles 

 at the base. The lishes occurred in this bed. and chiefly in a thin 

 seam of i-ed marl, overlying the pebbly seam at the very bottom of the 

 Waterstones. They were present in large numbers, as if in a shoal, 

 for a distance, in the line of section, of about 33ft. 



The specimens I obtained have been examined by several com- 

 petent authorities, but unfortunately their state of pi-eservation is so 

 bad that nothing certain can be made out as to their precise zoological 

 affinities. Dr. Traquair, however, believes that they probably belong 

 to some species, new or old, of the genus Semionotus. 



The occurrence of these fossils at the junction of two distinct sets 

 of beds — the Basement Beds and the Waterstones — is probably not a 

 mere chance coincidence. The characters of the preceding Keuper 

 Basement Beds — false-bedded, coarse, grey sandstones and con- 

 glomerates with large fractured quartzite pebbles, and lenticular beds 

 of red marl — prove them to have been formed during a period of great 

 violence ; while those of the Waterstones — regularly -bedded fane- 

 grained yellowish sandstones and red marls covered with ripple-marks, 

 sun-cracks, and pseudomorphs of common salt — show that they were 

 formed in quiet and shallow waters. It appears pretty certain, then, 

 that these tishes did not live in this area during the turbulent times 

 of the Basement Beds, but came in when subsidence let in the quieter 

 waters of the Waterstone epoch.* 



Corrcsponbcncc. 



A Lakgk OxTEit IN THK Tkent. — Mr. John Glover, of Newark, very 

 recently succeeded in shooting an exceedingly tine otter in the 

 Muskham tishery. near Newark. The animal was very large, 

 weighing twenty-six pounds, and appears to be about six years old. 

 Much damage has Vjeen caused to the tishery by otters of late, and it is 

 very likely indeed that there are several there yet. — J. P. B., Nottingham. 



Practical Botany. — We have received from Major Barnard, of 

 Bartlow, Leckhampton, near Cheltenham, some very well-drawn 

 illustrations (by Mrs. Barnard) of British plants, in which the chief 

 points of their botanical structui'e are clearly and characteristically 

 brought out. One set is intended to illustrate Houston's " Practical 

 Botany ;" while a second set includes examples of nearly all the impor- 

 tant genera of British flowers. They are sold at a shilling a dozen, 

 whether of the same plant or of different plants. Teachers of botany, 

 or private students, will And these drawings very useful ; they show 

 one just what to look for. — W. J. H. 



* I should mention that I obtained the specimens under somewhat unfavour- 

 able circumstances, namely, in the roof of a timnel, several liundred feet from 

 daylight, and after the rock had been defaced by smoke and dirt. The foBsili- 

 ferous bed lies only a few feet below the surface of the ground, and if carefully 

 opened from above, better and perhaps identifiable examples might 

 possibly be obtained. 



