40 AUTOBIOGRAPHY [CHAP. v. 



thrown from the vessels. This, however, seemed to me of 

 some interest in connection with the set of the currents. 

 Here, however, I am out of my element, but as my brother 

 Dr. Ormerod employed me as a collector, I am not personally 

 responsible. 



The distinct varieties of soil, and also the geographical 

 and the geological surroundings of Sedbury, were un- 

 usually favourable to natural history investigations, whether 

 of fauna and flora of the present day, or of fossil remains 

 of saurians and shells. These were easily accessible as they 

 fell from the frontage of lias, or the narrow horizontal strip 

 in the cliffs (plate X.) facing the Severn, well known to 

 the geologists as the "bone bed." At the highest part 

 the cliffs were about 140 feet, calculating from medium 

 tide level. There the face had been quarried back 

 for a supply of lias limestone, used in enlarging the 

 offices of the house, and in so doing had laid bare a fine 

 bed of so-called " Venus " shells. We used to find beautiful 

 specimens of those shells, irrespective of this extra fine 

 deposit, and also of "patens," oysters of some kind, 

 which we sought for unweariedly, hammer in hand. The 

 greatest matters of interest, however, were the saurian, or 

 the fish remains, of which we sometimes found a plentiful 

 supply of specimens of little value, and now and then some 

 of considerable interest. 



The Sedbury cliffs lie nearly north of the Aust cliff, and 

 contain the Aust bone-bed, from which the Severn, about a 

 mile wide, or somewhat more, there divides them. Geo- 

 logically, in all important characteristics, I believe the two 

 cliffs correspond. Of this bone-bed it is noted by Sir 

 Charles Lyell 1 : "In England the Lias is succeeded by 

 conformable strata of red and green marl or clay. There 

 intervenes, however, both in the neighbourhood of Ex- 

 mouth, in Devonshire, and in the cliffs of Westbury and 

 Aust, in Gloucestershire, on the banks of the Severn, a 

 dark-coloured stratum, well known by the name of the 

 ' bone-bed.' It abounds in the remains of saurians and 

 fish, and was formerly classed as the lowest bed of Lias ; 

 but Sir P. Egerton has shown that it should be referred to 

 as the Upper New Red Sandstone." The reasons given 

 are not of interest to the general reader. From the fallen 

 debris of this we collected vertebrae, single, or sometimes a 

 few in connection, also bones of the paddles, and any 



1 Manual of Elementary Geology, by Sir Charles Lyell, F.R.S., 

 fifth edition, 1855, pp. 337, 338. 



