CHAPTER V. 



THE LONDON CLAY — ITS FOSSILS — ITS HISTORY. 



About fifty years ago a few young men, ardent naturalists and at 

 the same time sociable and friendly, as ought always to be the 

 case with lovers of Nature, formed the " London Clay Club," and 

 devoted themselves not merely to convivial suppers but also to 

 the study of the great bed of clay on which London stands and 

 especially to that of its fossils. The late Professor Morris, the 

 first occupant of the Goldsmid Chair of Geology at University 

 College, was one of the little band, so was Dr. Bowerbank of 

 fossil-sponge fame and founder of the Palceontographical Society, 

 and so was Dr. Wetherell of Highgate. To the last-named 

 gentleman all geologists and naturalists are greatly indebted for 

 what we know of the ** life of the period," as geologists say, that 

 is, of the creatures that lived at the time that the London Clay 

 was being deposited at the bottom of the sea, for during the time 

 Dr. Wetherell lived at Highgate the Archway Road was formed, 

 and, this cutting through the hill at the level of the most fossil- 

 iferous zone of the London Clay, was the cause of a very large 

 number of fossils being disinterred. 



With assiduous care the Highgate member of the London 

 Clay Club collected and preserved every fossil he could obtain 

 from the Archway cutting, not only by his own hands, but also 

 by stimulating the friendly aid of the workmen, who were 

 delighted to keep for "the doctor" every shell and every frag- 



