1859.] BUCKMAN FOSSIL REPTILIAN EGGS. 107 



2. On some Fossil Reptilian Eggs from the Great Oolite of Ciren- 

 cester. By Professor J. Buckjian, F.G.S., F.S.A., F.L.S., ifcc. 



The fossils which form the subject of this notice, were obtained by 

 one of my pupils (Mr. Dalton), from the Hare-Bushes Quarry, about 

 one mile to the east of Cirencester. 



This quarry, which is largely worked for the use of its freestone, 

 offers a good section of the upper beds of the Great Oolite of Glou- 

 cestershire, — the alternations of their bands of stone and partings of 

 clay marking that unsteadiness of character by which the Bradford 

 Clay and the Forest-marble appear to have commenced their deposi- 

 tions, the Bradford Clay (that is, a marly bed containing the fossils 

 originally observed at Bradford, such as the Apiocrinus rotundus, 

 Terehratula digona, T. coarctata, and T. cardium) being only local, but 

 still observable in many positions both to the east and west of the 

 Hare-bushes — the most remarkable being at the Acman-street or 

 Tetbury-road Station, about two miles to the west of the Royal Agri- 

 cultural College, where the bed is about eight feet thick in its 

 deepest part, and whence Mr. Woodward obtained no less than 127 

 species of fossils. 



"Where, however, the bluer clays set in, marking the true Forest- 

 marble, these will be found to contain but few fossils ; at the same 

 time, their position is well marked by their always resting on the 

 upper, obliquely laminated, bed of the Great or Bath Oolite, as shown 

 in the following 



Section of the Hare-Bushes Quarry. 



ft. in. 

 1. Surface-Soil (brashy) 1 



g *3 I 2. Thin bands of freestone, separated by marly 

 ||| partings, blue and yellow 5 <» 



3. A white freestone, with oblique bedding, very deci- 

 dedly oolitic 8 <> 



4. A very white or cream-coloured freestone, in rough 

 nodular blocks 2 



5. Beds of freestone in blocks (equivalent to the Bath 

 building-stone) in which oblique lamination is usually 



only visible after long exposure (bottom of quarry). . . LO 



26 



The specimen containing the- fossil eggs (see l-'igs. 1 and 2) was 

 found in the Stage marked l.and consists Of the characteristic stone. 



It is, however, bo be regretted that, from not having myself taken it 

 from the quarry, I can form do conclusion as to the manner in which 

 the eggs originally lay in the bed, though 1 should almost think they 

 formed the upper pad of the specimen. 

 There can be do doubt, however, as regards the general nature of 



this portion of the Oolitic deposit, that it was accumulated OH a 



widely shelving beach, ox in a very shallow sea, a- the oblique land- 



