A RETROSPECT. 151 



turn up the largest Pleurotoma attenuata ever yet 

 discovered, measuring four and a half inches in 

 length and three and a quarter inches in circum- 

 ference round the thickest whorl. 



' We were now down no less than eight feet. 

 And at this stage the water from the brook, 

 which had been threatening, began to burst in 

 upon us from the north side. We, however, with 

 intervals of bailing, still pushed on till we reached 

 the next bed of pale clay, measuring from seven 

 to eight inches, containing Cassidarice highly 

 pyritized, and sharks' teeth, amongst which Mr. 

 Keeping discovered an enormous spine, measuring 

 at least ten inches in length, but we were unable 

 to take it out perfect. The water had all this 

 time been gaining upon us, in spite of our con- 

 tinued efforts to bail it with buckets. We, how- 

 ever, succeeded in making the Voluta horrida bed 

 which seemed, at this spot, literally teeming with 

 shells. Each spitful, too, showed specimens of 

 fruit, carbones, fish-palates, drift-wood, and those 

 nodular concretions which had gathered round 

 some berry or coral. 



'At this point the water, which was now. 



K 



