298 FOSSILIFEROUS CLAYS, 



NOTE ON SO^IE FOSSILEFEROUS CLAY, 

 AT WOLVEEHAMPTON. 



BY THE REV. H. W. CROSSKEY, F.G.S. 



Some time ago I received an ounce or two of clay, -wliicli had been 

 found in excavating a drain at Wolverhampton. On examination it 

 yielded the following fauna : — 



FoEAMraiFEKA. 



Pohjstomella crispa. Pohjmorpliina lactea. 



Mr. H. B. Brady (who kindly examined the specimens) informs me 

 that they are typical forms, far too widely distributed for anything 

 positive as to habitat to be said about them, but that the chances are 

 they belonged to a starved, shallow water marine fauna. They are more 

 probably starved with cold rather than fresh water ; and Mr. Brady 

 would " guess " them Arctic rather than brackish. 



MOLLITSCA. 



TelUna balthica. — Fragments. 



Dr. J. GwjTi Jeffreys obligingly examined these fi-agments, and 

 states that " they must belong to TelUna balthica, because of their 

 fleshy and loose calcareous textm-e." On the card to which I had 

 affixed the fragments Mr. Jeffreys detected the miniite portion of a 

 univalve, which (lie states) is " petrified and probably Liassic, being 

 derived ;" and refers to the paper by the Kev. W. Lister, " On the Drift, 

 containing Recent Shells, in the neighbourhood of Wolverhampton," 

 published in the " Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society," Vol. 

 XVni., p. 159. In this paper it is noted that in the drift at Bushbuiy 

 Junction rolled shells and other fossils, derived from Liassic rocks, 

 such as Grj'phaea, Ammonites, Cardinio), and Belemnites, accompany 

 Nassa reticulata, Tiirritella communis, Purimra lapillus, Littorina squalida, 

 Astarte Arctica, Cardium edule, TelUna solidula, and Cypriim Islandica. 



Of these species, two are decidedly Arctic, \iz., Aatarte Arctica and 

 Littorina squalida, but the others are common to British and Arctic 

 waters. 



ECHINODERMATA. 



Echinus ? Two spines. 



These spines are too worn for the species to be determinable, but 

 undoubtedly they are spines of an Echinoderm. 



Dr. Jeffreys remarks generally upon the specimens submitted to 

 him by Mr. Lister — "It is possible that these shells may have been 

 can-ied off with the pebbles fi-om a beach in the Ai'ctic regions by an 

 iceberg, which, after traversing a considerable distance in the glacial sea, 

 may have stranded or melted and deposited its load in the spot where 

 the shells and pebbles had now been found. The present data are, 

 however, insufiicicnt to enable me to form any opinion on this point." 



The specimens now recorded do not enable any more decid«d 

 opinion to be given. If not in situ, they must have been in the mud 

 iutcmiixed with the stones and boulders brought down by one of the 

 numerous icebergs which stranded in this district. In cither case, 

 however, they add to the proof of the submergence of the Midland area 

 during the last great geological epoch, and eucoiu'age us to hope that 

 other shell beds may yet be found. 



