W. D. Lang — The Selhornicm of Charmouth. 389 



The fossil-bed here described was first found by the author in 

 April, 1901, and fossils from it have been obtained on several 

 •subsequent occasions. 



So far as can be determined the bed has not yet been described, 

 though it may have been mentioned by Mr. A. J. Jukes-Browne in 

 dealing with the Gault and Upper Greensand of Englandr^ He 

 speaks of " the highest visible bed " at Black Ven as being composed 

 of " brownish sand with green grains and many broken shells of 

 Pecten (Neithea) quadricostata, recalling sand seen at Foxton, near 

 Chard." Further than this he does not describe it, and I am inclined 

 to think that he refers to a bed at the top of the cliff, immediately 

 under the Golf Links, about half a mile further westwards. Other- 

 wise he could not have failed to mention the number of other fossils, 

 notably JExogyrcs, with which the Neithea fragments are associated. 



Mention is also made in the same place of " a nest of silicified but 

 fragmentary fossils, .... resembling very poor Blackdown 

 specimens," found by the Eev. W. Downes in 1884.'' But on 

 referring to Mr. Downes' paper it seems that the fossils he found 

 were at least a quarter of a mile further west ; for he describes them 

 as occurring " 50 feet above the spot in the Gault where I obtained 

 the other fossils, and in nearly a straight vertical line above it." 

 Tracing this line from where Gault fossils are noio exposed, we 

 reach a locality where there is no section, although cliffs are present 

 on either side of this spot, the junction of the old and present 

 Lyme roads. As the present road had only been made four years 

 previously to Mr. Downes' paper, it is probable that these cliffs 

 were then much less overgrown, and possibly his fossil-bed is the 

 same as that described below, appearing further westwards, which 

 (if there) is now hidden by overgrowth and talus. Even so, it will 

 be seen by the section following that the latter is considerably more 

 than 50 feet above the black Gault loams. 



At a height of from 370 to 400 feet the road at present used 

 between Charmouth and Lyme has been made for some distance 

 along the face of the cliff, passing along the lower part of the zone 

 of ScMoenbacMa rostrata (Sowerby), which consists of yellow sands 

 locally called 'Foxmould.' This Foxmould forms a cliff of varying 

 height overhanging the roadway, and at a spot situated some one 

 and a half miles from Lyme Church, and about half a mile from 

 Charmouth Church there is a small cliff on the seaward side of the 

 road. This cutting is called by the villagers the ' Devil's Bellows,' 

 on account of the great force with which a gale blows through it, 

 facing as it does the south-west. The inland cliff is 75 feet in 

 height, and the main fossil-bed occurs at a height of about 50 feet. 



The following section, measured in September, 1902, gives 

 a general idea of the beds of which the Foxmould consists. The 

 small divisions, however, probably thin out rapidly in all directions, 

 and so are of no use in correlating the beds from hill-top to hill-top. 



1 A. J. Jukes -Br owner "The Gault and Upper Greensand of England," 1900, 

 p. 186. 



' W. Downes, " The Cretaceous Beds at Black Ven, near Lyme Eegis " : Quart. 

 Joui-n. Geol. Soc, vol. xli (18S5), p. 23. 



