ON THE FOSSIL BEDS OF BEADFOED ABBAS 

 AND ITS VICINITY. 



BY JAMES BUCKMAN, F.Gr.S., F.L.S. 



As Mr. Davidson has been so good as to furnish me with a 

 beautifully-illustrated paper on the Brachiopoda of this district, I 

 have much pleasure in yielding to his request that I should pen a 

 few remarks upon the stratum from whence these interesting fossils 

 were obtained. 



Soon after I came to reside at Bradford Abbas I became aware of 

 the richness of the oolitic strata of the district in fossil remains, and 

 from a quarry on my own farm, mostly worked for parish roads' 

 and from another on the farm adjoining, I was not long in procuring 

 a large number of species, many of which were then new to me. 

 The railway cuttings through the parish and the celebrated Half- 

 way House quarries, all within a mile, were next examined, when it 

 was found that a band of rather rough, ferruginous oolite was so 

 thickly charged with organic remains as to have got for it the general 

 name of " the fossil bed." 



The most conspicuous among the fossils were the Cephalopoda, 

 Ammonites, Nautili, Belemnites; then came the Brachiopoda, which 

 were found to be abundant both in species and individuals; and, 

 lastly, more careful observation brought to light a large series of 

 Gesteropoda, among which are found a large series of small but 

 elegant species requiring patient labour to develop them, and hence 

 the knowledge of their presence in such numbers has been obtained 

 comparatively recently. 



Of course the geologist, on examining a stratum containing such 

 a striking mass of fossils, all occurring in a bed not three feet in 

 thickness, would at once be anxious to determine its horizon. 



At first this seemed very easy of accomplishment, as at Bradford 

 we have the oolitic stone replete with Cephalopoda resting on a 

 thick deposit of sand. 



