The ShephercVs Gutter Beds. 245 



a few fossils sparingly distributed, five to six feet ; (3) Turri- 

 tella carinifera bed, one foot and a half; (4) fossil bed, charac- 

 terized by Conus deperditus, and the abundance of Pecten 

 corneus within a few inches of the bottom, one foot and a half. 



It is worth noticing that these, like all the Bracklesham 

 beds, roll. In a pit which Mr. Keeping and myself dug we 

 found there had been a regular displacement of the gravel, and 

 that the beds rose at an angle of thirty degrees, whilst the 

 fossil bed was three feet lower on one side than the other of 

 the pit. In another, after cutting through a foot of gravel, in 

 which we found the os inominatum, of probably Bos longifrons* 

 and a bed of sandy clay about two feet in thickness, we came 

 upon a deposit of gravel about four inches thick, lying in the 

 depressions of the stiff brown clay which succeeded, and in 

 which still remained roots and vegetable matter. Thus we can 

 plainly see that, after the clay had been deposited, vegetable, 

 and perhaps animal, life flourished. Then came the gravel, 

 carrying all before it, and in its turn, too, was nearly swept 

 away, and only left here and there in a few scattered patches. 



Perhaps, nothing is so startling as this insecurity of life. 

 As was the Past so will be the Future, guided, though, always 

 by that Law, which at every step still rises, moving in no circle, 

 but out of ruin bringing order, and from Death, Life. 



The Brook Beds I can best describe for the general reader 

 by an account of a pit which Mr. Keeping and myself made. 

 It was sunk about 20 feet from the King's Gairn Brook, and 

 measured about 6 yards long by 4 broad. We first cut through 



* I say probably, for Professor Owen, who examined the specimen, states 

 that it is of a bovine animal of about the same size as Bos longifrons, 

 but does not yield sufficiently distinct characters for an exact specific 

 identification. 



245 



