1857.] BUCKMAN — OOLITES. 109 



able instance of how a species may become altered by a difference of 

 time and surrounding media. In addition to the species just quoted, 

 the bed is remarkable for containing other shells, as Lima Iceviuscida, 

 Mytilus obtusus, Geol. Cheltenham, t. 7, f. 2 ; Natica Leckhamp- 

 toniensis, Lycett, with occasional masses of a single species of coral, 

 probably belonging to the genus Microsolena of Milne-Edwards. 



B. 3. Freestone. — This, which is the thickest bed of the Inferior 

 Oolite, often partakes of the character of Bath Freestone ; and, when 

 quarried from underground workings, as at Dodswell quarries, near 

 Cheltenham, it is scarcely inferior in quality ; in some districts too, 

 as at Frocester Hill, it presents the phenomena of oblique cleavage. 

 The great mass of this rock is remarkably free from fossils, especially 

 any perfect specimens ; beds of stone, however, are not unfrequent 

 which appear to have been entirely composed of shell-sand. This 

 rock appears to have attained its greatest thickness at Leckhampton 

 Hill, where it cannot be less than 100 feet thick : at Frocester it 

 thins off to 40 feet. A similar thinning of this bed may be remarked 

 in the north Cotteswolds, though in its general aspect it is wonder- 

 fully persistent. 



B. 2. Flaggij Oolite — " Roestone," ' Geol. Cheltenham,' "Shelly 

 Freestone," Brodie. This is a coarse kind of Freestone, full of shells, 

 and extensively quarried at Leckhampton Hill for rough kinds of 

 stone-work ; its chief geological interest consists in the fact, that in 

 this bed of the Inferior Oolite we meet with a large development of 

 that peculiarity of life which so greatly prevailed in the Great Oolite 

 beds ; a fact which I first noticed in the 2nd edition of the ( Geology 

 of Cheltenham,' and which has since been worked out in great detail 

 by Messrs. Lycett, Brodie, and Gomonde. To the former gentleman 

 we are indebted for a very elaborate paper, bearing on the distribu- 

 tion of fossil forms in the Oolites, which will be found in the 1st vol. 

 of the ' Proceedings of the Cotteswold Naturalists' Club,' and from 

 which I copy the following general results (pp. 62, &c.) : — 



Species. 

 From the middle division of the Inferior Oolite 



were obtained 255 



Of these, from the Leckhampton beds were. . 181 



the Minchinhampton beds . . 145 



Common to the two localities 73 



Common to the Great Oolite and the Flaggy 



Oolite 64=28 per cent. 



The fauna, though differing in species from that of the beds of a 

 like structure in the Great Oolite, is yet of the same character ; and 

 hence, though the Upper Rags of the Inferior Oolite throughout our 

 whole district may be characterized by Cephalopoda and Brachiopoda, 

 species of these families are exceedingly rare in the shelly freestone ; 

 but Gasteropoda and Lamellibranchiata abound, and the following 

 list sufficiently points out the similar fossil conditions of the Free- 

 stones of the Inferior and Great Oolite rocks : — 



