94 OUR COMMON BRITISH FOSSILS. 



hood for the first time will be delighted with the 

 peculiar scenery of the " bottoms," as the deep, narrow 

 valleys are locally called. At Frith Quarry, about 

 two miles from Stroud, we have an ancient "barrier- 

 reef," full of Thamnastr&a, 

 IsastrcEa, Thecosmilia, Lati- 

 mczandra, etc., the species 

 most plentiful being The- 

 cosmilia gregaria. On the 

 opposite side of the valley, 

 the hill is crowned with 

 another coral-reef. In places, 

 these beds of corals are 

 nearly twenty feet thick. 

 The Cretaceous strata, 



Fig. 75. Smilotrochus granulatus 



(Gauit). from the bottom to the top, 



are distinguished for the numbers of single corals. 

 Smilotrochus, Brachycyathus, Trochocyathus, Lepto- 

 cyathuS) etc., are characteristic of the Lower Creta- 

 ceous, Gault, and Upper Greensand, and are found at 

 Folkestone, East Shalford, Surrey, in the " Bargate 

 stone " near Guildford, Farringdon (where the fossils 

 are very abundant, and in good preservation), Haldon 

 Hill near Exeter, and in the peculiar phosphatized 

 fossils of the Cambridgeshire Greensand. The singular 

 bed of red chalk at Hunstanton, on the Norfolk 

 coast (one of the most charming of quiet seaside 

 resorts, and possessing a neighbourhood full of 

 geological and botanical interest), takes the place of 



