XXXVI. 



fossil ink, from which Sir Francis Chantrey had some sepia drawings 

 prepared, pronouncing the ink of excellent quality. Prof. Huxley speaks 

 of these Belemnites and their ink bags in his monograph for the Geological 

 Survey in 1864. Iron pyrites is abundant in these beds, and used to be 

 collected for the manufacture of sulphuric acid. Its decomposition in the 

 beds after a fall of rain is accompanied with heat and smoke, and in one 

 instance, 1751, the cliffs near Charmouth were seen to burst into flame, 

 the result of this spontaneous combustion. Above the dark clay of Black 

 Ven comes a bed of dull Grey Marl 8090 feet thick known as Belemnite 

 bed, that being the only fossil abundant. It is capped by a thin bed of 

 pale Grey Limestone the Belemnite limestone, very fossiliferous. This 

 is best seen at the base of Golden Cap at low tide. Above this stone 

 come bluish Grey Clays, which in Stonebarrow Cliff are 100 feet thick, 

 called the green Ammonite beds, from the green tint of the calc spar 

 which fills the cavities of the characteristic Ammonite, A. lataecosta. 

 This bed is the highest of the lowest Lias strata. Much of it and all 

 above it has disappeared from Black Ven, the summit of which, like 

 most of the neighbouring hills, is Greensand of the Cretaceous series. 

 The most interesting feature of this is a small bed of Gault, 2025 feet 

 thick, furnishing several characteristic fossils. Above this comes some 

 80 feet of yellow and grey sand containing bands of sandstone concretions 

 known as Cowstones. Highest of all are some 20 feet of broken chalk 

 and gravel beds. This concludes a notice of the geology of Lyme Regis, 

 but from the Cobb a view of the cliffs extending to the east may be 

 obtained, displaying a continuous succession of all the beds of the Middle 

 and Upper Lias, followed by the important strata of the Oolitic series, 

 as well as by outliers from the Jurassic and Cretaceous periods. 



The party were then most hospitably entertained at luncheon by Mr. 

 and Mrs. Lister at Highcliff, following which Mr. Lister delivered a 

 highly interesting address on the group of Mycetozoa, on the study of 

 which he has been engaged for many years. Illustrations of the principal 

 and typical forms, drawn by means of the camera lucida, were hung 

 around the room. After the address was concluded the party were con- 

 ducted to another room, where under several microscopes some o the 

 chief features in the life history of this group of organisms were exhibited. 



From Highcliff the party were conducted to Belmont, the residence of 

 Doctor and Mrs. Bangay, who had taken a very active part in the 

 successful arrangements of the meeting. Here tea was served in the 

 garden, and one object amongst others excited much interest a fine 

 specimen of a fossilized Calamus, which had been discovered on the sea 

 beach near Lyme. It measured 30 feet in length, and was taken up in 



