466 Notices of Memoirs — Prof. Prestwich on Mundesley Beds. 



Y. — On the Chakacters of the "Lansdowne Enckinite" (Milleri- 

 CRiNus Pratii, Gray, sp.) By P. Herbert Carpenter, M.A. 



THE "Lansdowne Encrinite " is a species o^ MiUericrinns [M. Prafii, 

 Gray, sp. =: Apiocrinus ohconicus, Goldfuss) from the Great 

 Oolite on the top of Lansdowne, near Bath. It is remarkable for the 

 very great variation in the characters of its stem and calyx. The 

 former may reach 50 mm, in length, and consist of 70 discoidal 

 joints ; or there may be less than ten joints, the lowest of which is 

 rounded off below, and its central canal closed up. Various inter- 

 mediate conditions may occur between these two extremes, while in 

 some specimens there may be only two to four stem-joints ; and in 

 one case the whole stem is represented by a slightly convex imper- 

 forate plate on which the basals rest. This specimen, taken by 

 itself, would be naturally regarded as a Comatula of advanced age, 

 in which the cirrhus-sockets had disappeared from the centre dorsal 

 just as they do in the recent Adinometra Jtnliesii. The general ap- 

 jDcarance of the calyx is very similar to that of Pentacrinus Wyville- 

 Thomsoni from the North Atlantic. But it is remarkable for the 

 number of small intercalated pieces which it may contain. The 

 basals are frequently separated from one another, or from the radials, 

 by minute plates which, while regularly developed all round the 

 calyx in some specimens, are entirely absent in others. 



The nearest allies of M. Pratii seem to be M. Munsteriamts. var. 

 BucManus, and M. Nodoiianiis. It stands on the extreme limit of 

 the genus, connecting it with Pentacrinus on the one hand, and with 

 the free Comatulidce on the other. It is thus a synthetic type, as 

 would naturally be expected from its geological position ; for it is 

 probabl}'^ the earliest known species of the genus, except perhaps for 

 two doubtful Liassic forms, which are known only by isolated plates 

 and stem-joints. 



YI. — On the Extension into Essex, Middlesex, and other 

 Inland Counties, of the Mundesley and Westleton Beds, 

 IN Relation to the Age of certain Hill-gravels and of some 

 op the Yalleys of the South of England. By J. Prestwich, 

 M.A., E.R.S., Professor of Geology in the University of Oxford. 



THE author gives in this paper the result of observations com- 

 menced more than thirty years since, but delayed publication 

 inconsequence of doubts caused by the complexity of the phenomena. 

 As mentioned in the preceding paper, a peculiar group of land, 

 freshwater, and marine beds occupy, on the Norfolk coast, a zone 

 between the Chillesford Clay and the Lower Boulder-clay, As we 

 proceed southward, the land and freshwater conditions are gradually 

 eliminated, and marine conditions then alone prevail. Poorly 

 marked as the marine evidence is in Suffolk, this evidence is entirely 

 wanting further inland, and we have only levels, superposition, and 

 structure to rely on in correlating the fragmentary outliers into 

 which these beds finally resolve themselves. Again on the coast of 

 he Eastern Counties, this group forms a nearly level plane but 



