150 AUTUMNAL LEAVES. 



four broad. "We first cut through a loamy sand, 

 measuring three feet, and then came upon nineteen 

 inches of gravel, where at the base stretched the 

 half-fossilized trunk of an Oak, and a thick drift 

 of leaves mixed with black peaty matter, the 

 remains of some primaeval forest. Three feet of 

 light-coloured clay, unfossiliferous, succeeded; 

 and then came the Corbula bed, with its myriads 

 of Corbula pisum, massed together, nearly all 

 pierced by their enemies, the Murices. Stiff light- 

 coloured clay, measuring eighteen inches, followed, 

 revealing some of the shells which were to be 

 found so plentiful in the next stratum. Here, at 

 the Pleurotoma attenuata Bed, our harvest com- 

 menced, and since Mr. Keeping has worked these 

 beds, no spot has ever yielded such rich results. 

 Every stroke of the pick showed the pearl and 

 opal- shaded colours of the Nautilus, and the rich 

 chestnut glaze of the Peden corneus, whilst at the 

 bottom lay the great thick- shelled Carditos plani- 

 costce. Inside one of these were enclosed two 

 most lovely specimens of Colyptroea trochiformis. 

 Mr. Keeping here, too, found a young specimen 

 of Natica cepacea (?), and had the good fortune to 



