30 MR. R. D. DARBISHIRE ON GREAT-ORMe's-HEAD 



the beach, where the business of pearl-seeking is yet 

 pursued. The pile of mussel-shells is in itself a re- 

 markable object. 



As zoologists describe apart_, as "incertse sedis/^ a 

 specimen which they are unable to classify, I have kept 

 for special description Mr. Binney^s bed of shingle before 

 referred to. 



This bed is described (Manch. Geol. Trans, i860, i. 

 p. 97) as a deposit of fine sandy shingle of small slate 

 or Silurian gravel, about 2 feet thick, mixed with larger 

 pebbles of well-rounded white quartz and chert, and 

 resting on still larger pieces of limestone, which are 

 angular. The shingle at first appeared to its discoverer 

 to have been brought up for the purpose of repairing the 

 road; but the rounded pebbles of quartz and chert, and 

 the fact of his having traced the shells all the way up the 

 hill from the sea-beach, convinced him that it was a 

 natural deposit. In it occurred Mytilus edulis and Ostrea 

 edulis, Patella vulgaris, and Littorina littorea. 



In connexion with some other raised-beach observations, 

 I have studied this bed, year after year since 1861, with 

 unusual care, and I confess I am not able to give hearty 

 assent to its marine character. 



It appears on the south side of the old road, in a low 

 section, at a point a few yards below the line where the 

 mine-plateau breaks into the declivity of the old-road 

 valley. As worn by rain, it has always appeared deeper 

 in the section than it really is. I have never with a 

 spade found it so much as a foot thick. It is composed 

 of very beach-like small shingle, and contains a certain 

 proportion of larger rounded pebbles varying in size from 

 a hen^s e^^ downwards, and also some of the angular 

 fragments of limestone debris. About a third part of 

 the smaller material consists of very coarse sand, with 



