G. W. Lamplugh — The Shell-bed at Speeton. 



17r 



Cliff Top. 



Instead of Boulder-clay, I found a slight thickness of gravel of a 

 purely local character to underlie the shelly sands, consisting entirely, 

 as far as I could see, of much stained Red and White Chalk pebbles, 

 Neocomian nodules, plates of Upper Kimmeridge shale, with many 

 fragments of fossils, chiefly Belemnites, not much rolled, from the 

 Red Chalk and Neocomian, and an occasional Oolitic pebble. I have 

 also found in the bed itself a pebble of jet from the Upper Lias. 

 This gravel rested directly on the lower part of the Lower Neoco- 

 mian, the Astierianus band of Prof. Judd, containing Belemnites 

 lateralis and Exogyra sinuata in abundance ; and not on Kimmeridge 

 Clay. 



The section from the cliff-top to the Neocomians then stood as 

 follows : — 



If the top red clay be traced north- 

 ward, it is found to separate into two well- 

 marked divisions, the upper of which is 

 red and the lower brown, with gravels 

 and sands, sometimes of great thickness, 

 between them. Here, however, they are 

 mingled, and no line can be seen. The 

 Boulder-clays, except the top red clay, 

 contain shell fragments sparingly scat- 

 tered through their mass, which differ 

 widelj^ however, from those contained in 

 the bed below ; Bentalium, two or three 

 species of Astarte, Cyprina, Mya, Saxi- 

 cava, etc., occurring amongst others, and 

 of course the ubiquitous Tellina Balthica, 

 which never fails a Yorkshire Post-Ter- 

 tiary shell-list. 



Eeddish Boulder-clay, 

 30 feet. 



Sand and Gravel, 5 feet. 



Dark Boulder-clay, 

 10 feet. 



Sandy Shell bed, 



16 feet. 



"With thin gravel above and 



below. 



Lower Neocomian. 



The shell-bed itself is made up as follows : — 



Fine chalky gravel 



Dark clayey sand ; few shells. Soft yellow sand with indu- 

 rated lumps: many shells, Cardium ediile, T. Balthica, 

 Scrohicularia piperata ; passing into 



Dark blue-black muddy sand, with a foetid odour : with a 

 few pebbles and plates of Kimmeridge shale : many shells 

 — T. Balthica, C.edule, Utriculusobtusus, Hydrobiaulvce, 

 plentiful; Littorina littorea and Z. rudis, rare; at the 

 very bottom — Mytilus edulis 



Gravel of Red and White Chalk, broken Neocomian 

 fossils, etc. ... ... ... ... about 



Thickness. 

 ft. ins. 

 6 



9 2 



5 1 



1 6 



16 3 



The shells are in so bad a state of preservation that it is very 

 difficult to remove them. More especially is this the case in the 

 upper part of the bed, where the water which oozes out from the 

 soaked sand below percolates more freely. 



DECADE II. — VOL. VIII. NO. IV. 12 



