1857.] BUCKMAN OOLITES. 125 



stood that here only the most significant are given, the fossils of this 

 rock being much more numerous than is generally thought* : — 



3. Ammonites Mariae, D'Orb. Ammonites Duncani, M.C. 



Athleta, Phill. Belemnites hastatus, Blainville. 



Goliathus, D'Orb. Puzosianus, D'Orb. 



2. Ammonites Gulielmi, M.C. ") ?Jason Ammonites Chamouseti, D'Orb. 



Elizabeths, V ' Z i e t en ' Gryphsea dilatata, Phill. 



Pratt. J 



1. Ammonites Calloviensis, M. C. Terebratula ornithocephala, M. C. 



Koenigi, M. C. Trigonia — costated and clavel- 



sublaevis, M. C. lated forms. 



Goweriamis, M. C. 



The agriculture of the Oxford Clay is very variable ; where good 

 farming prevails, and the necessary preliminary expenses incident to 

 draining and otherwise ameliorating the mechanical texture of the 

 subsoil have been entered into, highly rich tracts of land are seen ; 

 but where these have been neglected, as in the well-known Forest of 

 Braydon, there will be found some of the stiffest and poorest land 

 in the country : this latter circumstance, coupled with the occur- 

 rence of occasional deposits of lignite in the thick clay-beds, has 

 for centuries led to futile workings for coal, which are not aban- 

 doned even in the present day. A century since, a working of this 

 kind was commenced in the Oxford Clay at Malmesbury, and, after 

 sinking a shaft a little more than 100 yards, the works were abandoned 

 — at the instance, it was said, of proprietors in the Somerset coal-dis- 

 trict, " fearing lest the new works would injure them by competition ;" 

 and a short time since the recommencement of the works was agitated: 

 but it may be interesting, as marking what a century has done in 

 this direction, to know that, previously to deciding upon so doing, 

 the opinion of a geologist was sought in the matter ; and, as I 

 happened to be chosen to make a report upon the subject, it will 

 not be wondered at, that I should recommend the works to be 

 abandoned. However, people still think, from the wild aspect of 

 much of the country occupied by the Oxford Clay — simulating, as 

 it does, the appearance of a district in which mining and manufac- 

 turing has injured vegetation and caused agriculture to be neglected 

 — that the surface indicates mining-ground ; and some of the lignite 

 got out of the clay in the section made for the Great Western 

 Railway is still preserved as good evidence of coal by some, who, 

 occasionally finding similar lignite in the clay in brick-fields and 

 elsewhere, credulously say, "if coal is so good and so thick near 

 the surface, how much thicker may it not be found at the depth of 

 a mine !" 



11. Coral Rag. 



This rock will be seen represented in Section, PI. VII., at the top 

 of Blunsdon Hill, where it attains the thickness of about 15 feet ; 

 and in the deviation to Swindon small exhibitions of the stratum may 



* A full list of these, it is hoped, will be given hereafter : there are many new 

 forms. 



