1858.] WOOD RED CRAG. 41 



The basin in which were accumulated these presumed derivative 

 fossils is rather more limited than the E.ed Crag itself, the outskirts 

 of the existing portion of that deposit not appearing to yield any of 

 the so-called " coprolitic" material, and not having been disturbed 

 by the agricultiuist for that purpose. The longest diameter of the 

 true " coprolitic" basin extends about ten or twelve miles ; and in 

 this limited area there are spots in which these foreign ingredients 

 have been more especially deposited. Thomas Waller, Esq., of Sutton, 

 who has excavated a large amount of the phosphatic clay, and is 

 well acquainted with the inorganic contents of the E-ed Crag in his 

 immediate neighbourhood, tells me that the proportion of these clay- 

 nodules to the chalk-flints is about 8 to 1. This is where the 

 " coprolite" is in the greatest abundance; and it is there also that 

 flints are in excess of other localities, so far as I have been able to 

 observe them, though flints are occasionally found in the outskirts 

 of this basin where the '' coprolite" is not seen. I am scarcely able 

 to say that the flints are more worn or rolled than the clay-nodules ; 

 they are somewhat angular, with the angles rounded off ; and they 

 appear to me to have been simply washed from the Chalk and trans- 

 ported into the Crag-basin, and not from any great distance ; speci- 

 mens of large size (from 8 to 10 inches in diameter) are but little 

 bouldered. The organic remains of the Chalk do not bear that pro- 

 portion to those of the London Clay which the inorganic are sup- 

 posed to do ; the species are few in number, and the individuals are 

 very rare : this arises no doubt from the paucity of fossils in the 

 destroyed portion of that formation. The specimens from the Older 

 Secondary rocks are even stiLL more rare. 



lyiixed with this " coprolite" are a number of sandstone-nodules* 

 which (with the flints) are thrown aside by the " diggers" as use- 

 less for their purpose. These nodules are chiefly siliceous ; but they 

 exhibit a slight effervescence on being touched with muriatic acid, 

 at least this is the case with those specimens formed around a cal- 

 careous nucleus. Many of them contain the cast of a mollusc, as if 

 the sand had aggregated around the shell, the calcareous matter 

 forming the cementing material of the nodule; but the greater 

 number of the nodules are free from any such nucleus. These 

 sandstones, Mr. Waller tells me, bear about the same proportion to 

 the flints that the flints do to the '' coprolite," namely, 1 to 8 ; 



slight movement of the water, for the large and fragile shells are found in asso- 

 ciation with these smooth and polished "coprolitic" specimens. Their smooth 

 and rounded condition, therefore, does not appear to have been the result of 

 water-action while in the Coralline Crag. 



Phosphatic clay has been procured from the Grreensand, and, I believe, 

 from other formations ; but the nodules in the Red Crag are no doubt derived 

 conjointly from the London Clay and the Coralline Crag — S. V. W. Sept. 1858. 



* In a List of Fossils from the Red Crag at Beaimiont, printed in April 1846 

 by Mr. John Brown, F.G.S., are included the following inorganic materials : — 

 " Agates ; Chert ; Septaria ; Quartz (the milky variety, in large boulders) ; 

 Quartz, highly crystalline, similar to that at Lickey-hill near Bromsgrove ; Mica- 

 ceous schist, in pebbles ; and Flints from the Chalk, very large and angular, 

 others rounded into boulders and pebbles." 



