J. W. Elices — London Clay at Soufhampfon. 549 



Evidence, not available at the time the Survey vras made, has 

 since been obtained which shows that at several points within the 

 area mapped as Bracklesham beds, London Clay crops out. This 

 discovery is mainly due to Mr. T. W. Shore, F.G.S., of the Hartley 

 Institution, Southampton, who has taken care to preserve in the 

 museum of that establishment the fossils on which the evidence 

 chiefly rests. 



At Mansbridge, in the Itchen Yalley, south of Bishopstoke, works 

 in connection with a pumping station have exposed at a depth of 

 16ft. septaria containing abundance of Turritella sulcifera, with 

 Itimella, Fusus, Natica, etc. A brickyard at Woodmill has yielded 

 septaria and casts of a bivalve. At the railway bridge across the 

 Itchen, on the Netley line, septaria with Pechinculus brevirostris 9 

 have been found, and unfossiliferous septaria in the river-bed at the 

 new Cobden Bridge, St, Denys. 



The above facts considered alone are not sufficient to decide to 

 what series the beds in the valley belong, but at St. Denys, drainage 

 works have exposed strata containing fossils in a high state of pre- 

 servation, a collection of which is exhibited in the Hartley Museum. 

 The species are as follows : — 



Terehratula sp., Ostrea picta, Ostrea (a small ribbed species like 

 0. flabellida), Pectunculus brevirostris ? Cardita planicosta, 

 Panop(Ba intermedia, Plioladomya margaritacea, Aporrhais 

 Soiverbyi, Turritella sulcifera, Natica sub-depressa, N. labellata, 

 Pleiirotoma 3 species, P. denticula, Pisania sp., Fusus tuberosus, 

 Murex sub-coronatus, Pi/rida Smithii, Bostellaria liicida. 



The above list of species, if accurately determined, leaves little or 

 no room for doubt that the bed at St. Denys is London Clay, several 

 being characteristic shells of this formation. Some of them are 

 well known as occurring in the Bracklesham beds, but nearly all are 

 included in the list of species obtained from sections in the London 

 Clay formerly exposed at Portsmouth, published by Mr. C. J. A. 

 Meyer (Q. J. G. Soc, vol. xxvii. p. 85). The author notices "the 

 apparent mixture of London Clay fossils with species which are 

 usually considered characteristic of higher or lower formations." 

 Thas it becomes highly probable that a considerable area in the 

 Itchen Valley, including the localities that have been named, is 

 occupied by the London Clay. 



Eailway works at Nursling, in the Test Valley, south of Eomsey, 

 have recently led to a somewhat similar discovery. A well at the 

 station yielded the following section : — 



Gravel 7ft. Sin. 



Loamy sand of a dark slate colour 9ft. 9in. 



Sandy bed with hardened blocks containing Pecluncubis brevirostris, 

 Rostellaria lucida, Cancellana laviusctda, Turritella sulcifera. The 

 blocks closely resemble the well-known Bognor rock. 



The cutting to the south of the station exposed patches of beds 

 which afforded tolerably clear evidence of the presence of the Lower 

 Bagshot, and a pebble-bed at the base of the Bracklesham series, in 

 succession, dipping south. The whole is covered with drift gravel. 



At Bassett, a northern suburb of Southampton, a small tributary 



