JDT. 38-39.] NEOCOMIAN. 81 



the trouble of preparing any long note upon the subject) that, 

 after going through most of the French papers in the ' Bulletin 

 de la Soc. Ge'ol. de France,' I find that the term G-res Vert is so 

 frequently used in a right sense for our L. G. Sand ; whilst, as you 

 know, the French geologists have already distinct and different 

 names for the Upper Green sand (" Craie tufau," " Craie chloritee," 

 " Glauconie crayeuse "), and thus have avoided the impropriety 

 of joining, as we have done, the " Upper " and " Lower " Green 

 sands, which have really no connection. It would be very 

 unlikely that the use of a new term would be accepted, and 

 thought necessary (if that is the only ground on which new 

 names can be acceptable) in France. 



I think, therefore, after fully considering the subject, that I 

 shall confine myself at present to proposing simply to adopt 

 the term " Neocomian " for the lowest divisions of our Cretaceous 

 deposits; making it a part of our Lower G-reen sand, and in- 

 cluding only the groups I., II., and III. of my large Table. 1 The 

 groups next above IV. to XIV. of the Table will then be the 

 middle division distinguished and well known in England ever 

 since 1824-25 by containing G-ryphcea sinuata, and being con- 

 spicuously the middle division of my section at Hythe and Folke- 

 stone (Kent). You will see in the Table that in XIV. (6, No. 

 45) there is a continuous line of fossils going out there in a very 

 distinct manner. This line is, I am very glad to find, also very 

 distinct in the Hythe section (at Sandgate) ; and there also separates 

 the middle division of the L. Green sand from the uppermost 

 division (XV. and XVI. of the Table), which, both at Atherfield 

 and near Folkestone, consists chiefly of pure whitish or buff and 

 yellowish-gray sand, with very few fossils (yet with some shells, 

 and these sometimes silicified !). This upper division of the 

 L. G. S. occurs in France (and I suspect also in Switzerland, 

 where it has caused some perplexity). 



The " Gault " is immediately above this upper light-coloured 

 sandy division, and makes a strongly contrasted boundary. I 

 think of giving a short sketch of the progress of inquiry, so far 

 as the Neocomian and our L. G. sand are concerned. This will 

 enable me to give an account of the orginal Terrain "Neocomien " 



1 See Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc., vol. iii. p. 289. 

 F 



