110 PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. [June 17, 



List of Shells common to the Great and Inferior Oolite Freestones. 



(From Lycett's Table.) 



Patella rugosa, M. C. Rissoina obliquata, M. C. 



inornata, Lycett. Lima, 8 species. 



Eraarginula s,calaris, M. C. Mytilus, 4 species. 



alta, Lycett. Gervillia, 2 species. 



Monodontasulcosa (Nerita), Archiac. Cypricardia cordiformis, Deshayes. 



Lyellii, Archiac. siliqua, Lycett. 



heliciformis, Lycett. Venus trapeziformis, Roemer. 

 laevigata, M. C. Suevica, Goldfuss. 



Turbo capitaneus, Goldfuss. Nucula variabilis, M. C. 



Natica canaliculata, Lycett. Area pulchra, M'C. ; and otbers. 



Rissoa laevis, M. C. 



Here then we see that in this bed we have a fauna similar in 

 character, and to a great extent specifically, as that in the Great 

 Oolite, some 200 feet above ; and this is accompanied by the same 

 kind of structure of stone, it being quite impossible to distinguish 

 hand-specimens of this portion of the lower series from the fossili- 

 ferous beds of the superior strata. 



B. 1. The Ferruginous Oolite, having been dwelt upon in the 

 earlier part of this paper, will require no further explanation here ; 

 it may not, however, be out of place to remark, that this bed in its 

 variable character shows clearly, what we might expect, that the first 

 commencement of oolitic deposits was much more irregular, both as 

 to the materials left at different parts of the Oolitic sea-bottom, and 

 the remains of animals which are intermixed in the rock at dif- 

 ferent places ; and in this way may we not readily account for — 



a. Sandy deposits at Frocester, where the Pea-grit is absent alto- 

 gether ; 



b. Siliceous freestones in blocks, with occasional beds of Pea-grit 

 at Crickley Hill ; 



c. Sandy deposits with occasional limestone-bands, as at Nails- 

 worth ? 



As far as fossils are concerned, we may reasonably expect that 

 they differed with various depths ; and neither at the bottom of the 

 Oolitic sea, nor of any other formation do we find an evenly laid 

 floor, with an everlasting repetition of the same pattern, like the car- 

 pets of those drawing-room geologists who substitute theory for field- 

 exploration. 



3. Fuller's Earth. 



This deposit rests upon the Inferior Oolite, and may be seen in 

 tracing up the Cotteswold scarps along the Section, PI. VII., about 

 half a mile to the east of Birdlip, where it forms a sloping ridge of 

 blue clay, much exposed in the road-cutting, and at once recognized 

 by wells and springs w r hich supply some cottages with water. This 

 water-bearing bed has been denuded from the Birdlip platform ; and 

 hence the bar to the increase of dwellings in that picturesque locality, 

 as the depth to the next water-bed — the Upper Lias, about 200 feet, 

 is much too great for ordinary wells ; the dip too of the Fuller's 

 Earth is from the place, and besides it is cut off by a deep ravine in 



