158 EH. B. Tawney—The Brockenhurst Bed near Lyndhurst. 
Down or Silver Street, about a quarter of a mile from Mr. Keeping’s 
locality, in which abundance of Brockenhurst forms were found. 
These mostly came into the possession of the Rev. J. Compton, of 
Lyndhurst, who showed them to Prof. von Kcenen, and has lately 
given me much information concerning them. 
It appears that the well-sinker did not keep accurate records of 
the depth at which the various beds occurred, so that the measure- 
ments in Mr. Wise’s books are not strictly to be depended on. 
We are told by those who now daily use the well that it is 82 ft. 
deep, which is 10 ft. more than might be inferred from the book in 
question. ‘The said section gives 7 ft. of Voluta geminata zone, and 
at a further depth of 19 ft. the Brockenhurst fossils cease. Where- 
ever we have seen this bed, it is a thin bed, and separated from the 
V. geminata zone by beds poor in or devoid of fossils. It is not 
likely then that the whole of the nineteen feet contained Brocken- 
hurst fossils, as is implied in Mr. Wise’s section. 
The date of the digging of this well seems to have been about 1863. 
Since the original Brockenhurst locality is closed to investigation, 
from the fact that the rich bed there lies below the metals of the 
railway, I have attempted in the last week to open the equivalent 
layer at Cutwalk Hill. . 
In this I have been helped both by Mr. H. Keeping and the Rev. 
J. Compton. To the co-operation of the latter I am specially 
indebted, both for his constant advice, and also for permission to 
dig on land belonging to Minstead Manor, in immediate proximity 
to the Silver Street well. 
The Brockenhurst bed being sandy, and lying on impervious clay, 
it is advisable not to work at its immediate outcrop, but to begin 
above and dig down to it, so as to cut it as far as possible from the 
actual outcrop, where it is sure to be weathered, and the fossils 
probably have vanished. Of course one is limited by considerations 
of depth, and dependent on the contour of the ground. In the field 
below the well we struck the Brockenhurst at a depth of 4 ft. It 
is here a sand bed as at Brockenhurst; it lies immediately on fresh- 
water Lower Headon Marls (which again lie on the Upper Bagshot 
Sands, as proved in the well), while it is succeeded above by un- 
fossiliferous brown and green clays, which become gradually sandier 
below as the fossil bed is approached. We were unsuccessful in 
finding good fossils. A few of the characteristic oyster, Ostrea 
ventilabrum, were found, also Cytherea Solandri var., but most of the 
fossils had perished, and white calcareous spots or concretions alone 
represented them. Mr. Keeping informs me that it was precisely the 
same at the outcrop of this bed in the Brockenhurst railway cutting. 
We were therefore evidently too near the outcrop for obtaining 
well-preserved fossils. It was, however, impossible to approach 
nearer by reason of the gardens of the cottages, which extend to 
about 50 yards from the well. This is the more to be regretted, 
because the fossils obtained in sinking the well were especially 
well preserved. They were greyer in colour, less weathered, and 
altogether much harder than those obtained in the railway cutting. 
