350 REPORT— 1891. 



2. With regard to the Fleurotomaria bed, it is characterised by the 

 mixture of Upper and Middle Lias fossils, tbe ammonites in particular 

 being Upper Lias forms and nearly identical with those found in 

 Northamptonshire ; also gasteropods are met with of many species. One 

 of the lamellibranchs that Day particularly mentions as a rare form — 

 Sanguinolnria retusta — is abundant at Milton in the Transition bed, 

 though not found elsewhare. 



3. The Le-ptrrna Chiys of Moore agree in position with our Transition 

 bed, but evidently inclade also the shales bolow the Fish bed, for Moore 

 both speaks of the Lepteeua beds as extending from the Marlstone to the 

 Fish bed at Dambleton, and also refers ' to the flattened impressions of 

 ammonites and their aptychi, and fish remains in the upper portion. 



Not only does the description of the beds lead to the belief that they 

 are the repi-esentatives of the Transition bed and part of the Paper Shales, 

 but we have found between the typical localities of Ilminster and 

 Dambleton, viz., at Stinchcombe Hill, in Gloucestershire, a red sandy clay 

 just above the rock bed with Ammonites aontns in it. 



4. The Animlatus Zone of Yorkshire, of Tate and Blake, is so clearly a. 

 Transition zone from the Middle to the Upper Lias that the contem- 

 poraneity of this with the Transition bed of Northamptonshire need 

 scarcely be insisted upon. It would appear that whilst there was a 

 period of rest, or actual denudation of previously deposited matter, at 

 the termination of the Middle Lias era in some parts of the ^Midland and 

 South-western counties, in Yorkshire from tbe first, and soma few other 

 places after a time, a deposit was taking place. 



Fish and Saurian Zone (Moore). 



Fish Fed and Faper Shales, or Fish beds. 



Paper Shales with Fish and Insect Limestones — ' Dmnhleton ' 



Series (Judd). 

 'Animal ' Logger and Jet-rock Scries (Tate and Blake), 



Here, again, we have a set of beds differently named, but which can be 

 distinctly recognised as the same, extending over an area from Somerset- 

 shire to Yorkshire, and very seldom entirely absent. 



(1) It is exceedingly probable that the lower part of the Upper Lias 

 limestone on the south coast is the representative of the Fish bed, for, 

 according to Mr. Day's description, it contains Ammonites serpentinus in 

 abundance, and does not differ more from the typical form than does the 

 same bed only a few miles apart in Northamptonshire (compare Bug- 

 brook and Catesby). The list of fossils given from the upper part is 

 consistent with this view. 



(2) The Fish and Saurian Zone is certainly the same as the Fish bed 

 and Paper Shales of Northamptonshire, and this investigation shows that 

 it would be a not inappropriate name. "^ 



(3) Fish and Insect Beds would not be quite so suitable a description, 

 as insects seem to be very local. 



(4) ' Furnbleton ' Series does not seem a suitable terra, considering 



' The' Middle and ITpjjer Lias of the South- M'est of England, bv Cbarles Moore, 

 F.G.S., pp. 7 and 56, 57. 



^ Mr. Charles Moore expressed doubt as to the Fish bed of S.W. Northamptonshire, 

 described by Mr. Walford, being the equivalent of that of Somerset and Gloucester. 



