TRANSACTIONS OF SECTION C. 857 



In the ' Index-map ' the Dolomitic Conglomerate and tbe Eed Marl are thus 

 included under tbe same symbol and colour. But this is also made to include the 

 llha3tic — an arrangement which is hardly in accordance with the facts observed in 

 the Bristol area. On a small-scale map so narrow an outcrop as that of the 

 Bhsetic could hardly he shown ; yet its affioities are probably with the Lower 

 Lias rather than with the Trias. The late Edward Wilson, whose recent death 

 we all deplore, in his paper on the Rhretic rocks at Totterdown,' showed most 

 clearly that the ' Tea-green marls,' which had previously been associated with the 

 Rhsetic, represent an upwards extension of the Ked Marls of the Trias, in which 

 the iron had sutl'ered reduction ; thoup:h there are indications of a change of con- 

 ditions having set in before the deposition of the Ilhtetics. The black Ehjetic 

 shales which succeed usually have a sharp and well-defined base in a Bone-bed 

 with quartz pebbles, &c., indicating a sudden change of physical conditions, though 

 perhaps no marked unconformity. In the South AVoles district the Ehai'tic lime- 

 stones are said to be largely of organic origin, and, in addition to a Rhsetic fauna, 

 to abound in the laniellibranchs so plentiful in the lowest Lias limestones.'-' 



The late Charles Moore always deplored the comparative poverty of the Trias in 

 fossils. In his last communication to the Geological Society ■' he set himself to 

 describe certain abnormal deposits about Bristol, and to institute a comparison 

 with the region of the Mendips. He then suggested, on the faith of a sketch by 

 Mr. Sanders, that the famous Durdham Down deposit, already inaccessible, 

 might have been a fissure-deposit in the Carboniferous Limestone like those at 

 Holwell. He also stated that at one time he had been inclined to regard the 

 Reptilian deposit on Durdham Down as of Eha3tic age ; but the discovery of teeth 

 of Thecodontosanrus, identical with those of Bristol, in a Keuper Marl deposit 

 near Taunton, induced him to refer the Durdham Down deposit to the middle of 

 the Upper Keuper. He had arrived at the conclusion that the same genera of 

 vertehrata are found in the Keuper and Rhfetic beds, though the species, with few 

 exceptions, are quite distinct. 



But it is with the Lias that the name of Charles Moore is most intimately 

 associated. Time does not permit me to do more than allude to the wonderful 

 collections of Rhcctic and Liassic fossils made by him from the fissure-vein.? of 

 the Carboniferous Limestone, or of the treasures which are stored iu the Bath 

 Museum. There never was a more enthusiastic palfcontologist, and nothing pleased 

 him better than to exhibit the fossilised stomach of an Ichtki/os(///n/s, stained by 

 the ink-bag of the cuttle-Bsh, on which it had been feeding, or some similar 

 palfBontological curiosity. Everyone here knows how deeply the West of England 

 IS indebted to Charles Moore for his unceasing researches, and I have been thus 

 particular in alluding to them because it was under his auspices that I first became 

 acquainted with the geology of this part of the cotmtry just thirty years ago. 



Amongst more recent work in the Rhajtic and Lias, I might mention papers 

 by Mr. II. B A^'oodward and Mr. Beeby Thompson, each in explanation of the 

 arborescent figures in the Cotham Marble. The latter revives an old idea with 

 modifications, and his theory certainly seems plausible. Mr. H. B. Woodward's 

 Memoir of 1893 does full justice to the Lias of this district, and mu^h original 

 matter is introduced. 



It is, however, in the Inferior Oolite that the most important interpretation.s- 

 have to be recorded since the days when Dr. "Wright and Professor J. Buckman 

 endeavoured to correlate the development of the series in the Cotteswolds with that 

 in Dorset. To this subject I alluded at considerable length in my Address to the 

 Geological Society iu 1893, pointing out how much we owed in recent years to the 

 late Mr. Witchell and to Mr. S. S. Buckman. In the following year appeared Mr. 

 H. B. Woodward's Memoir on the Lower Oolitic Rocks of England (^' Jurassic 

 Rocks of Britain,' vol. iv.), wherein he did full justice to the work of previous 

 observers. Meantime Mr. Buckman has not been idle, and hi.* paper on the 



' Quart. Juurn. Geol. Soc. vol. xlvii. (1891), p. 545. 

 - Ann. Rep. Geol. Siirmy for 189G, p. 67 (1897). 

 ^ Quart. Joibrn. Geol. Soc. vol. xxxvii. (1881), p. 67. 



