92 KEPoitT— 1 889. 



are probably no other plants common to the Bovey and Isle of Wight 

 beds, and certainly none that do not also range down into the Bourne- 

 mouth Eocene. 



The evidence of the Osmunda, Palmacites, and Anona must outweigh 

 that of Carpolithes Websteri, even if we attach no importance to the 

 absence at Bovey of the rest of the characteristic Hamstead and even 

 Bembridge fossils. In the absence of the 0. Websteri there would be no 

 reason for not absolutely assigning the Bovey basin to the Bournemouth 

 or Middle Eocene age, but as matters stand, it would perhaps be safest to 

 regard the Bovey formation as a mass of coarse river grits, enclosing in 

 places some considerable patches of lignite, of probably Bracklesham age, 

 but certainly not newer than Lower Headon. As a mass they are entirely 

 indistinguishable from the Lower Bagshot beds of Wareham, and certainly 

 cannot be regarded as in any sense lacustrine, unless the river deposits 

 of the Middle and Lower Bagshots are to be assigned a similar origin. 



Third Report of the Committee, consisting of Mr. E. Etheridge 

 {Chairman), Dr. H. Woodward, and Mr. A. Bell (Secretary), 

 appointed for the purpose of reporting upon the 'Manure' 

 Gravels of Wexford. (Dratvn up by Mr. A. Bell.) 



The writer greatly regrets not being able to complete the final report on 

 the Wexford ' manure ' gravels and other deposits in time for the present 

 meeting of the Association. Since the last (second) report the explora- 

 tioGS carried out in the area of the gravels, in Ballybrack, Balscaddin, 

 and Balbriggan Bays, in Larue Lough and the vicinity, and Portrush, 

 have so much augmented the material accumulated in years past that a 

 postponement till next year is requisite in order that the facts may be 

 properly assimilated and the specimens accurately named. 



The exigencies of building and road-making have practically obliterated 

 the most prolific portion of the drifts in Ballybrack (or Killiney) Bay 

 and the deposit at Portrush, the only traces of the shell-bed at the latter 

 place occurring between the rocky masses on the shore above high- water 

 mark. Fortunately, previous to these operations a quantity of material 

 was obtained by the reporter, and a list of about 120 species will be 

 given in the sequel, wherein a brief notice of the principal deposits 

 will be found, with lists of fossils obtained by the writer and previous 

 observers. The line of research to which an examination of the fossils has 

 led the writer is to the effect (1) that the so-called Lower, Middle, and 

 Upper drifts in Ballybrack Bay have no connection whatever with the 

 equally so-named deposits in the English and Welsh areas, but are a 

 continuation northward of the Cotentin-St. Erth-Wexford sea-bed re- 

 ferred to in the second report, 1888, further traces of this extension 

 obtaining in the glacial clays of the Isle of Man, Nassa reticosa, among 

 other Pliocene moUusca, occurring in the northern portion of the island. 



Coeval with the Pliocene fauna of Wexford, Ballybrack, and the Isle 

 of Man are numerous species of northern origin, and examination of these 

 suggests a Scandinavian rather than an American or Greenlandic origin — 

 a suggestion intensified by the presence of a true Scandinavian fauna in 

 .several parts of the Scottish lowlands from the Clyde to the Forth and 



