534 L. Richardson — Rhcetic Rocks at Charfiehl. 



they occur ia the cream-coloured and less compact portion of 

 the bed. 



In the more immediate neighbourhood of Charfield and Wickwar 

 the Khastic beds crop out in the sides of ramifying valleys of much 

 picturesqueness, but few deeply-cut lanes traverse their sides, and 

 consequently there are few exposures of the beds under consideration. 

 In a field a quarter of a mile due south of Neathwood Farm is a pond 

 in the sides of which limestones and grey marls ai'e exposed, but 

 they are somewhat disturbed. No distinctive fossils were found, 

 but the deposits belong probably to the upper portion of the Upper 

 Ehsetic Stage. Fragments of a slightly conglomeratic bed, probably 

 on the horizon of the Gotham Marble, yielded crushed specimens 

 of Modiola minima and Pseudomonotis decussata and fish-scales 

 (Zegnonotus cothamensis, Egerton). 



Eed Marls, ' Tea-green Marls,' and Eha^tic black shales are 

 exposed in the sides of Chase Hill Lane. Resting directly upon 

 the ' Tea-green Marls ' is the Bone - bed, but it is not a very 

 extensive deposit at this locality, since one or two masses were 

 all that rewarded the writer's investigation. But these are crowded 

 with vertebrate-remains, the fish-scales being unusually large. The 

 matrix in which these fossils are imbedded is a hard, grey, crystalline 

 limestone, with irregular, but nevertheless conspicuously rolled 

 pieces of what appears to be ' Tea-green Marl ' marlstone and of 

 less compact green marl. Obscure casts of a Schizodiis-type of 

 Lamellibranch are not uncommon, and a broad form of Modiola 

 was also recorded. There are a few small quartz-pebbles, many 

 coprolites, SauricJdhijs acuminatus, Acrodtis minimus, Hybodus minor, 

 H. cloacinus, Gyrolepis Alberti, and many other remains in a very 

 fragmentary condition. Above are black shales. 



About half a mile to the east of the place where this highly 

 fossiliferous bed was discovered the road branches ; that to the 

 right leads into a little valley and crosses a bi'ook near a cottage. 

 In one side of this brook shales are visible underlain by a greenish 

 argillaceous limestone about seven inches thick, with a mammillated 

 surface. In places the limestone passes into marl. This bed may 

 be the equivalent of the Estheria-hed, but no fossils were noted. 



Close at hand, in the stream-side to the east of the cottage, the 

 Cotham Marble is well exposed, and this is the most northerly point 

 at which the writer has noticed it in its typical form. 



Section near Chase Hill, Wickwar. 



ft. ius, 

 w /'Shales, pale-greeu, calcareous, with a 

 M few thiu hard layers near base. 



'"' Limestone, dark, earthy 1 Ostrea Hassica, Modiola 



§ ■{ minima (abundant), 



^ I Shale-parting OJ 



3 I Limestone, hard, dark 3f Ostrea Hassica (abundant), 



. \^ Modiola minima. 



« I Cotham Jlarble. The top portion is 

 fd } very rubbly ; the remainder a good 

 w ( ' landscape stone ' 5 Fish-scales in upper portion. 



