50 STRATA IN TliE NEIGHBOURHOOD OF LONB<m. 



andinHamp- losophical Transactions. The fossils of Hampshire hav« 

 •hire. been scientifically described by Dr. Solander, in the Fossilia 



IJantonensia of Mr. Brander, where the fossils themselves 

 are very exactly figured. 



It was not supposed, even after the publication of these 

 accounts, that the fossils of Shepey and those of Hampshire 

 were of the same stratum. Aniouo- the Hampshire fossils no 

 mention is made of crabs, lobsters, tortoises, navtUi, or of the 

 heads or bodies of fishes so abundant at Shepey; while the 

 miirex pyrus,mvrex longccvus, strothhus ampins, &c., of the 

 Hampshire cliif had never, perhaps, been enumerated among 

 the Shepey fossils. 

 The ffatum in The identity of the stratum at Shepey and in Hampshire 

 kknVr^^ has, within a few years, been decided by digi^ing into this 

 game stratum atKew, where several of the fossils, which hud 

 hitherto been supposed peculiar to Shepey, were found in 

 the same pit whn those which had been considered as pecu- 

 liar to Harapuhire. 

 Farther proof In the present year, on cultin;:^ through a mound of thi» 

 rlti^'"*^'" stratum which forms Highgate Hill, this identity has been 

 still farther manifested by the discovery of threat numbers <if 

 those fossils minified together, which had been generally dis- 

 tinguished into Hampshire and Shepey fossils ; as crabtt 

 nautili, &c., like those of Shepey, together with several 

 shells, which had been generally regarded us peculiar to 

 Hampshire, and iti particular that uncommon alated shell, 

 strovibns amplus, Solander. frostellaiHi macroptera, La- 

 marck.) 

 rertainorga- ' In examining tliis stratum, the curious f^ict, that certain 



juc remains organic remains are peculiar to particular depositions, is first 



peculiar to ° « ' . ' ' 



particular de- observed. Very few indeed of the fossil shells of the gravel 



positioiii. strata are to be found in the bed of blue clay. In the gravel 



strata, by far the greater number of the shells bear a close 



agreement vvith those, which now exist in not very distant seas.; 



but in tjiis clay stratum, " very few of the shells are known 



"to be natives of our own, or indeed any of the European 



*' shores; but the far greater part of them^ upon a compa- 



**^ rison with the rewent, are wholly unknown to us*." 



* F»ss\lia Hantoniensia, p. 5. 



But 



