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



liarly assorted and considerably less uniform in size than 

 is usual within so small a space. It is mixed with 

 angular fragments of limestone. 



A lump of wood- charcoal occurred, which broke into 

 small pieces on removal. Either from this substance or 

 from some other cause, the deposit was, without being 

 mixed with the earth above, particularly dirty to handle. 



The fragments of shells, especially of Mytilus, form a 

 considerable proportion of the deposit. Except those of 

 Mytilus and Patella, they are all very much worn. Of 

 those two species they are very little worn, many edges 

 being quite sharp, with little sign of beach fracture or 

 beach wear. There are no fragments of young shells, nor 

 any small species. 



The bed is situated on the breast of the incline of the 

 old-road valley, and at about the middle of a transverse 

 section of that hollow — that is to say, in a position of 

 maximum exposure to degradation, whether by the waves 

 of a retiring sea or by atmospheric action and the super- 

 ficial drainage from the plateau. 



It is upon the lower clay with angular fragments, 

 which I suppose to be of subaerial origin. It has been 

 subjected to very considerable redistribution of com- 

 paratively recent data ; for the small shingle is traceable, 

 not as a bed, but loosely dispersed amongst the superficial 

 clay with mussel- shells, periwinkles, and bits of bone, for 

 a long way downhill in the sections on the side of the 

 old road; but this drift does not appear to extend into 

 the lowest layer of the superficial clay. 



Now there is visible in the sward behind the sectional 

 face of this bed a trench which looks most like the 

 remains of the foundations of a building about 4 or 5 

 yards square, as if the stones of such an erection had been 

 removed. 



Upon the whole I am inclined to think the bed in 



