1857-] PHILLIPS ESTUARY SANDS, SHOTOVER. 237 



sent to Mr. Greenough a notice of the occurrence, on Shotover Hill, 

 of imperfect casts of fossils which he believed to belong to the fresh- 

 water genus Paludina. They were discovered by one of my earliest 

 friends, the Rev. H. Jelly, of Bath, in a sand-pit on the brow of the 

 hill, much above the level of the Portland rocks *. 



Dr. Fitton's great "Memoir on the Strata below the Chalk f" re- 

 fers to the same fact, adding, that the shells appear to belong to five 

 species, three like Paludina, one small bivalve like Cyclas, and one 

 larger bivalve like TJnio ; but, according to Dr. Fitton, the speci- 

 mens found were all too imperfect to admit of precise determination, 

 and were none of them so unlike some of the species which occur in 

 the Lower Greensand as absolutely to exclude them from that 

 formation J. 



5. In 1847 I accompanied Mr. Strickland in a walk up Shotover 

 Hill ; but we found no shells in the Iron-sands, nor did it then 

 appear that my friend had much expectation of adding to the facts 

 he had already communicated. He must, however, during the 

 period between 1847 and 1854 have been more successful; for I 

 find in the Oxford Museum a remarkable specimen of Unio, which 

 he discovered not far from the summit of the hill ; and it is known 

 that, in explaining to his class the geology of the vicinity of Oxford, 

 he insisted on the probable freshwater origin of the Shotover Sands, 

 and even traced out in imagination the course of the river-action 

 to which they were due. 



6. In 1854 I first conducted my class to Shotover, and engaged 

 thirty or forty busy hands to renew the search in the Iron-sands. We 

 were more successful than our predecessors, and have on this and 

 subsequent occasions gathered a few Conchifera and Gasteropoda, 

 and plenty of coniferous wood. What seem to be cavities left by 

 Cypridce also occur, among other cavities due to a different cause, in 

 the ferruginous portion of the thick mass of sands and their clays 

 which overlie the Portland Rocks ; but I cannot say their recognition 

 is certain. 



In ascending Shotover from Oxford we meet (see Sections, PI. 

 XIII. figs. 1 & 2)— 



A. The Oxford Clay, with its usual characters. This deposit has 

 been penetrated, by a boring for water at St. Clement's, to a depth 

 of 400 feet. (Add 70 for the higher beds up to the calcareous grit.) 

 The lower parts, which are seen but rarely in the Oxford district, 

 yield Ammonites calloviensis ; the upper parts, Ammonites verte- 

 bralis. Gryphcea dilatata appears in the upper half ; and bones 

 of Plesiosaurus occur both in the upper and the lower parts. 



B. Calc-grit, or sands with cherty and shelly bands, containing the 

 usual fossils — Pinna, Ammonites vertebralis, &c. 



C. Coralline oolite, with shelly rag-beds. In this tract the oolite is 

 superior, the shelly rag inferior. 



* Geol. Proc. ii. p. 6. The specimens are preserved in the Geological Society's 

 Museum. 



f Geol. Trans. 2 ser. iv., 1836. % Memoir, p. 275. 



R 2 



