XTI. — On the Discovery of Coprolites, or Fossil Faeces, in the Lias at 

 Lijme Regis, and in other Formations. 



By THE Rev. W. BUCKLAND, D.D. V.P.G.S., F.R.S. F.L.S. 



PROFESSOR OF MINERALOGY AND GEOLOGY IN THE UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD, 



&C. &C. &C. 



[Read Feb. 6th, 1829.] 



1. Coprolites in Lias. 



It has long been known to the collectors of fossils at Lyme Regis, that 

 among the many curious remains in the lias of that shore, there are numerous 

 bodies which have been called Bezoar stones, from their external resemblance 

 to the concretions in the gall-bladder of the Bezoar goat, once so celebrated 

 in medicine : I used to imagine them to be recent concretions of clay, such 

 as are continually formed by the waves from clay on the present beach ; but 1 

 have now before me sufficient evidence to show that they are coeval with the 

 lias, and afford another example of the same curious and unexpected class of 

 fossils with the album graecum, which I first discovered in 1822 in the cave 

 of Kirkdale, being the petrified faeces of Saurian animals, whose bones are so 

 numerous in the same strata with themselves*. The Coprolites, which I shall 

 first describe, have yet been noticed chiefly at Lyme Regis ; but I think it 

 probable that they exist wherever the remains of Ichthyosauri are abundant ; 

 the most likely place to aflbrd them is the extensive coast near Whitby, where, 

 as at Lyme, the lias is exposed to continual destruction by the sea, and abounds 

 in bones of Sauriansf . A great number of these so-called Bezoars at Lyme, 



* The chemical evidence for this conclusion rests on the high authorities of Dr. Wollaston and 

 Dr. Prout. In Dec. 1825, I submitted to Dr. Wollaston a specimen from Lyme Regis (Plate 

 XXVIII. fig. 12.) and also one from Tilgate Forest (Plate XXXI. fig. 18.); and he then 

 informed me that both these specimens contain much phosphate of lime, and that his analysis 

 appeared to confirm my conjecture as to their fajcal origin. 



In the present year Dr. Prout has kindly occupied himself with this subject, and has analysed all 

 the varieties of faecal substance that are mentioned in this paper. — See hisLetter subjoined (p. 237). 



f Since this paper was read, I have recognized a Coprolite from Whitby, in the collection of 

 R. I. Murchison, Esq. ; it forms the nucleus of a small Septarium. At Bath and Barrow-on-Soar, 

 where large quarries of lias are laid open, and bones of Ichthyosauri are frequently dug up, we 

 shall probably also soon find Coprolites. 



