24 B. Thompson—Clay Beds by the Ouse. 
determined the only changes throughout the series are in the shape 
of the zocecia, which pass from slightly pyriform to hippothoiform, 
accompanied by a change in length from more than 23 to less than 23. 
It is probable that the more primitive forms of this series persisted 
into and through Bathonian times, and were the ancestors of at least 
the primitive forms of the Middle Oolites. So that the direct line of 
descent would not pass through S. Smith: (Phillips), but rather this 
specialised form is the end of a side branch which includes S. Phillipse 
(Vine) and S. intermixta (Vine). The line of forms represented in 
the diagram should in this case bend aside in the middle. But 
Bathonian forms as primitive as 8. dichotomoides (d’Urbigny) have yet 
to be discovered. 
VII.—Some Cray Bens By THE Ouse. 
By Brrsy Tuomprson, F.G.S., F.C.S. 
N the maps of the Geological Survey, Quarter-sheet No. 52, 
S.W. (Bedford), published in 1863, Upper Lias Clay is shown as 
bordering the Ouse Valley between Stoke Goldington and Olney, 
directly overlaid by the Great Oolite, that is to say, the maps indicate 
an entire absence of the Inferior Oolite (Northampton Sand). 
The only exposure of the clay I have seen is at Stoke Goldington 
brickyard, and until a few weeks back the only fossils I could find 
there were a few belemnites, but from these belemnites and the 
general appearance of the clay I felt quite satisfied as to its being 
Upper Lias. 
In Mr. H. B. Woodward’s ‘“‘ Jurassic Rocks of Britain,” vol. 11, 
p- 277, occurs the following passage: ‘“ Inlying exposures of Upper 
Lias have been mapped at Stoke Goldington and Weston Underwood, 
between Olney and Newport Pagnell. I have examined the 
exposures in company with Mr. A. C. G. Cameron, and we found no 
evidence of Upper Lias. The clays exhibit green and purple tints, 
like the Upper Estuarine Beds, with which I think they should be 
grouped. The occurrence of ‘ Nail-head spar’ in the clay at Stoke 
Goldington brickyard might be taken as suggestive of Upper Lias; but 
bands of fibrous carbonate of lime, or ‘ beef,’ are not uncommon in the 
Upper Estuarine Beds, and the ‘ cone-in-cone’ structure of the nail- 
head spar seems to be intimately connected with the ‘beef.’ It is, 
_ however, not unlikely that in this neighbourhood, as further westward, 
the Estuarine clays may, in places, rest directly on Upper Lias Clay, 
for the Northampton Sands become much attenuated, and may not 
always be present.”” A similar description of the same beds occurs 
at pp. 898-4 of Mr. H. B. Woodward’s ‘‘Jurassic Rocks of Britain,” 
vol. iv. 
Knowing what a very careful stratigraphical geologist my friend 
Mr. H. B. Woodward is, I felt inclined to drop my own opinion, 
which I could not satisfactorily confirm, and accept his, for which 
better evidence seemed to be offered, but being in the neighbourhood 
in August last with Master Gerard Thornton, an enthusiastic young 
geologist with a keen eye, I thought it would be a good opportunity 
to make a gallant attempt to solve the problem of the clay beds at 
