THE 



QUARTERLY JOURNAL 



OF 



THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF LONDON. 



Vol. XXXIII. 



1. The Cephalopoda-beds of Gloucester Dorset, and Somerset. 

 By J. Buckman, Esq., F.G.S., F.L.S., late Prof, of Geology and 

 Kural Economy, It. A. Coll. (Read June 21, 1876.) 



Evert student of the geology of the Cotteswolds has recognized a 

 band at the base of the Inferior Oolite under the name of the 

 " Cephalopoda-bed," so named from the important list of Ammonites, 

 Nautili, and Belemnitcs which it has been found to contain. 



To quote from Mr. Hull's ' Memoir on the Geology of the Country 

 around Cheltenham,' " This bed had been long known to geologists 

 as 'the ammonite bed;' but the ammonites were supposed charac- 

 teristic of the Inferior Oolite, and its true importance was over- 

 looked. Dr. Wright, however, found that the species were identical 

 with specimens from the Upper Lias of Whitby, in Yorkshire. 

 About the same time the work of M. D'Orbigny made its appearance, 

 wherein nearly all the cephalopoda from the ammonite bed arc 

 figured and described as ' ToarcienJ or Upper Lias forms, while 



even in our own district several of the species were known to 



be characteristic of the Upper Lias Shale " (p. 2G). 



Mr. Hull refers to a paper by Dr. Wright in the ' Proceedings 

 of the Geological Society,' vol. xii., in support of the view that the 

 Cotteswold Cephalopoda-bed belongs to the Upper Lias and not to 

 the Inferior Oolite, and, further, that the learned Doctor had traced 

 it to the Dorsetshire coast ; and, indeed, in this very paper we find 

 the following remarks upon sections at Half- Way House and Brad- 



Q. J. G.S. No. 129. B 



