1863.] ROBERTS AND RANDALL PASSAGE-BEDS AT LINLEY. 



231 



Fig. 1. — Sketch of the Upper Ludlow Rocks and the Passage-beds at 



Linley Brook. 



The numbers refer to those attached to the beds in fig. 2. 



In connecting the higher beds of this series with the true Old 

 Red Sandstone, it is worth remarking* that the lowest Cornstone 

 of the Old Red at present known occurs interstratified with the 

 plant-bearing grits (d in the Linley series) at Trimpley, two miles 

 north-west of Kidderminster. If, therefore, these bands of inorganic 

 breccia have any value as dividers of the series, we have here the 

 proved position of one, relatively to underlying deposits, hitherto most 

 difficult of arrangement. 



On the fossil contents of the series three observations may be 

 made : — firstly, the abundance of Lingulce, occurring in two condi- 

 tions — as well-preserved shells upon the surfaces of the shales, and 

 as layers of triturated shells ; secondly, the importance of the Fish- 

 fauna of the upper bone-bed, which has yielded the largest spines, 

 yet discovered, of the forms figured by Sir P. G. Egerton from the 

 corresponding bed at the Paper Mill, Ludlow*, together with some 

 fragments of solid bone (ribs ?) two inches in length ; and, thirdly, 

 the entire absence, so far as we have been able to make out, of Crus- 

 tacean remains. Even the lower " bone-bed," which has furnished, 

 from its outcrop at Ludlow and all other exposures, such numbers of 

 Astacoderma, does not appear to contain a trace of these bodies ; for, 

 though subjected to careful scrutiny by Dr. Harley and ourselves, it 



* Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc. vol. xiii. PI. X. p. 289. 



r2 



