32 PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



peat was cut through. See PI. I. Section, fig. 1 . The peat was sandy 

 in the upper part, and from 3 to 7 feet thick. It contained bones 

 of Bos (short-horned), Equus, Cei'vus (two species), Sus, and Canis 

 viilpes ; and in a layer of dark sandy earth and pebbles (6 inches 

 thick) at the base of the peat were found Hazel-nuts, shells of Helix, 

 Planorbis albiis, and Pisidium, and the elytra of a Carabus. Be- 

 neath the peat was a bed of blue clay, 3 to 8 feet in thickness and 

 penetrated by roots, in which, at 9 feet 6 inches from the surface, a 

 human skeleton* was found, indicating a comparatively recent date 

 for this deposit. The extent of the peat and clay is very limited as 

 shown in the section, and seems to have been accumulated in a small 

 natural pond which had become drained in later times.. 



The Lower Lias,Shale hes immediately under the above-mentioned 

 blue clay, and in tliis cutting is not very fossiliferous, as compared 

 with that of the Tunnel and south cutting. It contains similar in- 

 durated nodules and slabs of ironstone, on which innumerable frag- 

 ments and columns of Pentacrinus were found, but no perfect speci- 

 men was discovered. A few Ammonites and a very limited number of 

 shells, generally of a different species to those elsewhere met with, 

 and mostly in a crushed state, were also collected. The shale is much 

 impregnated with iron-pyrites. 



In the cutting at the south end of the Tunnel the two beds of red 

 clay and the lower bed of gravel (as shown in the longitudinal sec- 

 tion, fig. 1) crop out at the tunnel-mouth immediately underneath 

 the vegetable mould, and are at this place very much contorted. 

 The gravel contains the same fossils as before mentioned, all much 

 water- worn. 



In the red clay large marlstone-boulders were imbedded, very 

 much rounded by attrition and similar to those before mentioned ; 

 they were from one cwt. to 3 tons weight each, splitting up sometimes 

 into rough slabs, and containing in their interior many perfect shells, 

 resembhng those found in the Lower Lias Shale of this cutting. 



The yellow clay which lies immediately under the vegetable mould 

 along this cutting is much mixed up with the gravel at the tunnel- 

 mouth for a few yards, after which it forms a regular bed of stiff yel- 

 low clay, about 5 feet thick, passing at that depth into a tenacious 

 blue clay t, which rests on the Lower Lias Shale. In one or two 

 localities I perceived a thin layer of quartz-pebbles between the blue 

 clay and the shale. 



The upper beds of shale in this cutting are light-coloured, arena- 

 ceous, and sometimes of a laminated structure ; they contain but 

 few fossils, and assume a yellowish colour when exposed to the air. 



* The skeleton lay in a slanting position, the head elevated, and the face turned 

 upwards. I am indebted to C. G. Blatchley, Esq., C.E., for the above infor- 

 mation. 



t A stump of a tree, about 9 inches in diameter, was found erect in the blue 

 clay, at about 7 feet below the surface ; it was in a verv decomposed state, and was 

 not carbonized, but seemingly impregnated with iron-pvrites. 



