508 Notices of Memoirs — Range of Rlicetic Fossils. 



barren any addition, therefore, to either is interesting to the palaeonto- 

 logist. Many years ago the author discovered a ganoid fish — the last 

 apparently of the genus Palceoniscus superstes — figured and described 

 by the late Sir Philip Egerton (Journ. Geol. Soc. vol. xiv. p. 164) in 

 the Upper Keuper at Rowington (six miles north-west of Warwick) ; 

 and he now records another discovery of several small fish near there, 

 probably Semionotus — at present in Dr. Traquair's hands — wbich is the 

 first time this genus has been recorded from the British Trias. The 

 remains of small Cestracionts are not unfrequent in one particular band 

 of sandstone in Warwickshire and Worcestershire, with occasional 

 footprints in the former county of Labyrinthoclon. Ganoid fish are so 

 rare that these above named are, as far as the author is aware, the only 

 ones known, with one exception, which cannot be secured, in the Upper 

 Keuper ; the curious Dipteronotus having been found in the Lower 

 Keuper (waterstones) at Bromsgrove, in Worcestershire. The author 

 gave a section of the quarry containing the fossils above referred to, 

 and stated that he considered that the New Red Sandstone in Warwick- 

 shire, as the Rev. J. Hello has adopted in Cheshire, might fairly and 

 advantageously be divided into Upper and Lower Keuper, the two 

 series of sandstones being different lithologically, and being separated 

 by a considerable thickness of red marl, the lower sandstones being 

 especially characterized by remains of Lahyrinthodon and other peculiar 

 reptiles, a fine and unique collection being preserved in the Warwick 

 Museum. 



VII. — On the Range and Extent and Fossils of the Rh^tic Forma- 

 tion in Warwickshire. By the Rev. P. B. Brodie. M.A., F.G.S. 



THE author in this paper first gives an account of the range, thick- 

 ness, and fossils of the upper portion of the Rhsetic formation — 

 viz. the 'White Lias,' supposing that it really belongs to this, but to 

 which it is now generally assigned, showing that it is very rarely seen 

 in conjunction with the underlying shales, and that where they occur 

 in one or two important sections the White Lias is absent. A list of 

 the fossils is given, which are few and ill-preserved, Ostrea intusstriata 

 and a species of Avicula (Monotis) being the most characteristic. A 

 full account is given of the succeeding grey and black Rhaetic shales 

 with occasional intercalated shelly limestone and sandstone ; and though, 

 as a rule, good sections are rare, there were certain railway-cuttings 

 which laid open several very interesting and instructive ones, and 

 enabled the author to obtain a series of characteristic fossils, including 

 the Radiata, by no means common and local, the Ophiolepis Damesii. 

 It was stated that these occupied a considerable area in the southern 

 division of the county, appearing again on the north-east, near Rugby, 

 and as a rule succeeded by the basement beds (insect and saurian beds) 

 of the Lower Lias, which were in places seen in conjunction with these 

 shales. It was further observed that they probably underlie the Lias 

 in its course through the county; and the author concluded by showing 

 the general range of the Rhsetics from the coast of Devon to the coast 

 of Yorkshire ; which, although not comparable either in thickness or 

 abundance and variety of fossils with the rich, varied, and peculiar 



