﻿1861.] 



SALTER SILURIAN FOSSILS. 



161 



Note on the Fossils found in the "Worcester and Hereford 

 Railway Cuttings. By J. W. Salter, Esq., F.G.S. 

 [In a Letter to the Rev. W. S. Symonds, F.G.S.] 

 The tunnel through the hill (near Malvern) has given me a better 

 idea of the Woolhope beds than I ever had before. The quantity of 

 fossils is extraordinary. Our own collector, Mr. Gibbs, of the Geolo- 

 gical Survey, Dr. R. B. Grindrod of Malvern, and other friends have 

 obtained a great many, and in the most perfect state of preservation. 

 Of Corals there are only a few — the ordinary Wenlock species (for 

 the Woolhope limestone is nothing else than a lower Wenlock rock). 

 Of Cystidece the little Echinoencrinus armatus is frequent enough. 

 Trilobites are abundant. Ulcenus Barriensis attained its full size 

 here. The strawberry-headed Trilobites (Encrinurus) are in great 

 perfection, also Cheirurus, Sphcereccoehus minis with its globular 

 head, Acidaspis, Lichas, and four species of Phacops, including P. 

 Doivyiingice, the well-known Wenlock and Ludlow form. 



The most common shells are, of course, Brachiopoda, as in all 

 these muddy sediments. IAngula Leivisii and L. Symondsi (MS.) 

 are plentiful ; Atrypa, four species of Strophomena (of large size), 

 Discind, Crania, three species of Spirifer, four species of Orthis, six or 

 seven of Rhyhchonella, just as in the Wenlock limestone: Pentamerus 

 linguifer and P. rotundus are the most plentiful of all ; the latter 

 we have hitherto thought a rare species. 



Of the other bivalve shells there are Cardiola, Mytilus, Pterinea, 

 Avicida, and Nucula. Avicula?, of two or three species, are the most 

 common. 



Spiral shells are not so plentiful. Euomphalus and Oyclonema are 

 rare. BeUerophon is abundant : there are three species, including 

 the great B. dilatatus of the ' Silurian System.' 



The Cephalopod genera Orthoceras, Lituites, and Phragmoceras 

 also are rare. Lastly there is Ischadites, which I have lately found 

 to be a genus of the sponges ! 



It will be seen how much this list is like one made from the Lower 

 Ludlow deposits ; indeed, in a broad view of the Silurian system, 

 one would not readily separate the Lower Ludlow from the Wenlock 

 rocks. 



I have no notes on the Wenlock limestone along this section ; nor 

 is it veiy well developed. I believe it is cut out in many places by 

 faults not entered yet in any map. 



Of the Upper Ludlow Rock which lies between the Malvern ridge 

 and Rilbury Camp, it is enough to say that it contains the common 

 species in the usual proportions. When we meet with Chonetes lata, 

 Orthonota amygdalina, Orthis lunata, Orthoceras bullatum, and the 

 spiral shells (Murchisonia, &c.) with their investing Coral (Steno- 

 pora), we may be sure that the rest of the Upper Ludlow fossils are 

 not far off ; Serpulites Jongissimus, for instance, with a lace-like 

 Bryozoan on its surface, &c. 



The Aymestry bands near Rilbury Camp are not characterized 

 by any very peculiar fossils, so far as I know. The Brachiopods are 

 the most common. Instead of the Spirifer plicatellus of the Wool- 



