R. M. Brydone — Stages of the Upper Chalk. 61 



in the Anglo-Parisian and North German basins Yorkshire fossils should 

 appear in a different table from South English fossils, and that tests 

 which are valid in South England may be quite fallacious in Yorkshire. 



In the next place in the table on p. 372 the zone succeeding, as 

 a ' continental' zone, the zone of Marsupites is given as the zone of 

 0. pilula (on p. 369 it seems to appear as the "zone of 0. pilula 

 and 8. binodosus"). It seems hardly prudent to ignore the part 

 played by S. hinodosus ; and as 0. 'pUula and S. hinodosus are 

 practically alternative in occurrence the conjunction 'or' seems the 

 better one and the ' continental ' zone should bear the name of 

 " zone of 0. pilula or S. hinodosus ". In the same table the Turonian 

 is made to include the zone of M. cor-anguinum by what is obviously 

 a printer's error of transposition of two brackets, but it is disconcerting 

 as it stands. 



Finally, a minor point of discord is to be found in the female 

 gender of the varietal names of several varieties of JEchinocorys 

 sGutatus. If they stood alone they could no doubt be absolutely 

 justified on the ground that the name is an adjective whose 

 nominative is ' var.', which stands for ' varietas ', a feminine noun. 

 But this line of defence is blocked by instances such as e.g. 

 Inoceramus incoiistans, var. striatus. It looks like a result of the use 

 of two generic names of different genders for the same genus in 

 different parts of the paper, while all the varietal names have been 

 made to agree with one of them. It gives, however, a somewhat 

 unfortunate suggestion of blunder on the part of the authors of the 

 varieties. 



It may not be inappropriate to take this opportunity of mentioning 

 by way of postscript that I still retain the opinion expressed in 

 The Zones of the Chalk in Hants that the subzone of 0. pilula of that 

 work would be best treated as a separate zone, and that I should 

 have done so if I could have seen how in that case to deal with the 

 subzone of E. scutatus, var. depressus ; but it has always appeared to 

 me impossible to unite the latter with the zone below it, and very 

 difficult to endow it with zonal rank, and the only alternative was 

 to unite it with the zone above. 



Further, the plane which I have adopted as the top of my zone of 

 0. pilula is one which is identifiable by palseontological (and often 

 lithological) evidence of most exceptionally definite and easilj^ 

 recognizable nature, and it was hardly possible for a fieldworker, 

 chiefly engaged on pits, to ignore it. But it is undoubtedly the case 

 that the peculiar fauna of the subzone of abundant 0. pilula, other 

 than 0. pilula itself, does not die out suddenly, like 0. pilula, but 

 gradually over a distance generally about 8 or 10 feet, and which in 

 the Salisbury area is probably not less than the 25 feet necessary, 

 according to Dr. Blackmore's measurements, to embrace the whole of 

 the bed to which Belemnitella laneeolata is restricted, and which also 

 contains Aptychus Uptophyllus in abundance. 



There is therefore substantial ground for the theorist to argue that 

 the zone of 0. pilula (or, which is ])ractically the same thing, the 

 subzone of abundant 0. pilula^ must be extended above the upper 

 boundary which I have drawn for it. I have not, however, been 



