210 PROCEEDINGS OF IHE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. [Feb. 8, 



"cone-beds." They were certainly known to Dr. Mantell; and 

 specimens of their fossils have long been preserved in local museums. 



The strata and their remarkable fossils were casually alluded to 

 by Dr. Fitton in 1836, though their great importance was not at that 

 time recognized* . 



It is to Mr. Godwin- Austen, who in the year 1850 laid before 

 this Society a collection of the fossils of Punfield, that geologists are 

 indebted for first calling attention to the great interest attaching to 

 these remarkable beds. The collection excited at the time much 

 notice, and Professor Edward Forbes, then engaged in the prepara- 

 tion of a memoir on the "Wealden-Purbeck,iwhich he unfortunately 

 did not live to complete, pronounced that the fauna of these beds 

 (which he recognized as being clearly intercalated in the Wealden 

 series), while it had an undoubtedly Neocomian aspect, included 

 a number of new species, and several forms for which a new genus 

 would have to be created. As we shall see in the sequel, the views 

 of Professor Forbes have been completely substantiated by the 

 labours of subsequent observers. 



In his Anniversary Address before this Society in 1851, Sir 

 Charles Lyell made special reference to the remarkable beds at 

 Punfield, and their bearing upon geological theory -j- ; and in all the 

 subsequent editions of his ' Elements of Geology ' he has aUuded to 

 the subject as one of great importance J. 



In the Rev. John Austin's little memoir on the Isle of Purbeck, 

 the beds are briefly described §. 



Mr. God win- Austen, in his celebrated paper " On the possible 

 Extension of the Coal-Measures beneath the South-Eastern part of 

 England" ||, read in May 1855, again referred to the Punfield beds, 

 and founded some arguments on their existence. 



In the same year (1855) appeared the Geological Survey map of 

 the Isle of Purbeck, the work of Mr. Bristow, upon which a note 

 points out the existence of marine beds in the upper part of the 

 Wealden, and gives a list of some of the genera of fossils repre- 

 sented %, 



Mr. Godwin- Austen presented his collection of Punfield fossils to 

 the Museum of Practical Geology, where it was supplemented by 

 the specimens obtained by Professor Edward Forbes and the 

 collectors of the Survey. Mr. Etheridge, fully recognizing the 

 great value and importance of these fossils, not only caused them to 

 be carefully preserved, but, as several of them were of a perishable 

 nature, had careful drawings of them made by Mr. Bone, the Artist 

 to the Survey. Being engaged in the study of the fossils of this age, 

 I some time ago examined this series of fossils, and to my surprise 



* Trans. Geol. Soc. Ser. 2, vol. iv. pp. 207 and 228. 

 t Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc. toI. vii. p. lis. 



I Manual of Geology, 3rd ed. p. 229 (and all subsequent editions). 



§ A Guide to the Geology of the Isle of Purbeck &c., by the Eer John H. 

 Austin, p. 7. 



II Quart. Joui*n. Geol. Soc, vol. xii. p. 66. 



•jl Map of the Geological Survey of England and Wales, Sheet 16. 



