36 PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



they were very imperfect. The Chalk fossils consisted mostly of 

 Venti-iculites, with one or two other forms. 



These detrital deposits rest on a bed of Lower Lias Clay about 

 7 feet thick, very rich in fossils, which are small and very perfect. 

 The Lower Lias Shale lies underneath this blue clay, and is also very- 

 rich in fossils. These beds are much distorted, forming a hollow, in 

 the centre of the cutting, in which the large flints, &c,, are deposited. 

 They dip to the east, but the inclination is not uniform, varying from 

 one to fifteen degrees. The shale differs very much in this cutting 

 from any hitherto met with in this neighbourhood ; it is of a dark- 

 blue colour, and the fossils found in it are quite different from those 

 found in the shale of the other cuttings, a few hundred yards north 

 and south of it. The characteristic fossil is the Spirifer Walcotti, 

 which is not met with elsewhere in any other cutting along this 

 Railway, although it is frequently found near Gloucester. 



A cutting about 250 yards north of the Aston cutting is composed 

 entirely of the upper beds of the Lower Lias Shale, with a covering 

 of sand and clay, containing a few erratic boulders of Marlstone, but 

 there is not the least appearance of oolitic gravel or flints. The shale 

 is very arenaceous and resembles that of the cuttings at Mickleton, 

 but is not nearly so fossiliferous. In a cutting on the south side of 

 this hill, near the village of Dorn, the first 360 yards are composed of 

 the upper beds of the Lower Lias Shale, containing fossils quite di- 

 stinct from those of Aston cutting, also ironstone similar to that found 

 at Mickleton (north cutting) ; the rest of this cutting from Dorn to 

 Moreton is composed of siliceous sand and pebbles, together with a 

 loamy clay mixed with small flints, which forms the substratum. So 

 that the Aston cutting differs materially from the cuttings to the 

 north and south of it. 



List of the Fossils from the Shale of Aston Cutting. 



ZOOPHYTA. 



Caryophyllia ; 2 species. 



CONCHIFERA. 



Area ; new species. Nucula ; 2 new species. 



Astarte ; 3 new species. Pecten textilis, Micnst. 



Gervillia Isevis, BucJcman. Plicatula spinosa, Sow. 



Gresslya donaciformis, Phill. sp. Rhynchonella ; 2 new species. 



Gryphsea ; 2 species. Spirifer Walcotti, Sow. 



Leda rostralis, Lamk. sp. Terebratula nuniismalis, Lamk. 



pinnata, Bean, MS. punctata, Sow. 



Limea ; new species. ; new species. 



Nucula ovum, Sow. 



Gasteropoda. 



Chemnitzia ; 3 new species. Rotella polita .', Bronn. 



Cylindiites ; new species. Trochus imbricatus, Sow. 



Pleurotomaria anglica, Sow. sp. 



