CoTfrespondence — Fossil Beads. 139 



that the locality is Willington, Bedfordshire, and the formation 

 river-gravel. 



J. T. EANTOisr. 

 Kingston Eectoey, Cambkidge. 

 January 18, 1913. 



P.S.— The Rev. 0. Fisher M.A., F.G.S., and Professor J". E. Marr, 

 Sc.D., F.R.S., who have seen the beads, both support the view of their 

 having been nsed as personal ornaments. They are often, though by 

 no means always, perforated naturally. There is strong reason for 

 supposing they have been used as beads. — J. T. B. 



Note by the Editor on the so-called ' Fossil Beads'. 



In reply to Mr. J. T. Banton's letter it may interest some 6f our 

 readers to learn that the so-called fossil beads were figured by 

 Dr. G. A. Mantell in his Geology of Sussex in 1822 from the Chalk 

 near Brighton ; and in 1829 b)' Professor J. Phillips in Geology of 

 Yorlcshire. In 1833 Samuel Woodward in his Outlines of the Geology 

 of Norfolk figured several examples from Norwich and from Holt as 

 MilUpora globularis (now known as Porosphcera glohularis, Phillips, 

 sp., a small globular species of Calcisponge from the Chalk of England 

 and the Continent). Their history is very extensive, and has been 

 most carefully set forth by Dr. G. J". Hinde, F.R.S. (see Journ. 

 Roy. Micro. Soc, 1904, pt. i, pp. 1-25, pis. i and ii), who describes 

 and figui'es six species. 



In Mr. James Wyatt's paper in the Geologist (vol. v, pp. 233-5, 

 1862) the writer says he first became acquainted with these 

 objects about fifteen years earlier (1847) when uncovering some 

 Anglo-Saxon remains in the Kempston gravel-pit, near Bedford, 

 when several round stones perforated were met with; he adds, " so 

 strongly was I impressed at the time that they were the personal 

 ornaments of the ancient chieftain just exhumed that I actually 

 presented them to the Archaeological Society as Saxon beads . . . 

 Subsequent examination of the Drift gravels convinced me that the 

 balls were of an earlier period than the Anglo-Saxon, whether works 

 of art or natui-al productions. They are described by naturalists as 

 specimens of the Chalk fossil Coscinopora glohularis, but the question 

 is, how did they become perforated ? " Mr. Wyatt, after having 

 examined a great number of specimens, concludes the perforation in 

 these small globular bodies to be artificial. In this opinion he was 

 supported by Dr. RigoUot,^ who wrote that " les petites boules avaient 

 servi a former des colliers a I'usage des peuple sauvages " ; but 

 subsequently a strong objection was taken to this opinion by 

 M. Albert Gaudry, who ^ denies that there is any evidence for the 

 assertion that these are works of art, and asserts that they are found 

 in the Chalk perforated in the same manner us those specimens found 

 in the Drift. 



' See account of Dr. Eigollot's observations {Memoire sur les instruments 

 en silex, etc., p. 16, Amiens, 1854). See also Lyell's Antiquity of Ma7i, 

 4th ed., 1873, pp. 165-6, fig. 22. 



- Trans. Inst. France. 



