MOORE ABXOEiTAL SECONDAET DEPOSITS. 477 



Teleosaurus temporalis, Ichthyosauri, Fislies, Crustaceans, and Insects. 

 Although, so tMn, these beds are most precisely repeated in many of 

 the Xormandy sections ; and not only does the thin line of the Sau- 

 rian and Fish-bed yield its Teleosauri, Ichthyosauri and fishes, 

 though generally not so perfect as are my examples from Uminster, 

 but the Leptsena- clays have yielded all the small though interesting 

 series of Brachiopoda ^hich have made this zone celebrated. Whilst 

 at Ilminster and in Gloucestershire, where the same beds are found, 

 they form part of an uninterrupted series of Liassic deposits, resting 

 upon the Middle Lias marlstone, which is the upper member of that 

 formation, and therefore always on the same stratigraphical horizon, 

 at Curcy, ]^Iay, and Fontaine- etoupe-Four they are found unconform- 

 able, in little depressions or basins on the edge of an extended series 

 of Silurian rocks. ^. Deslongchamps, in his ''• ^lemoire sur la Couche 

 a Lept^ena du Lias," 1859, states that these more ancient beds belong 

 to the Caradoc sandstone, and that they extend from Caen towards the 

 south, by way of Bretteville-sur-Laize as far as Terson, to^May, Fer- 

 guerols, Fontaine-etoupe-Four, &c. In some instances he slates that 

 the organic remains are assembled on the rugged edges of the upturned 

 Silurian rocks, in which case they are found in gTcat profusion. Al- 

 though I was quite satisfied of the paraUehsm of the deposits of Curcy 

 and May with those of Ilminster, though found under such dissi- 

 milar conditions, M. Deslongchamps subsequently described a fauna 

 from Fontaine-etoupe-Four, which he considered to be of the age of 

 the Middle Lias, containing the genera Argiope and Suessia, together 

 with Sjpirifera Davidsoni and other interesting forms never re- 

 cognized in England, and which I, knowing, as I supposed, almost 

 every locality where they were likely to be found, almost despaired 

 of ever obtaining in this country. 



During a late visit to the Eev. J. S. H. Horner, of Mells, near 

 Frome, the possessor of one of the most varied and interesting geolo- 

 gical districts in this country (some parts of which I shall hereafter 

 notice), that gentleman was driving me to the JSIicrolestes quarry at 

 HolweU, of which he is the proprietor, when, near TThatley, on 

 crossing one of the pretty Carboniferous-limestone ravines which 

 traverse this district, we passed a little section of almost vertical 

 Carboniferous Hmestone, which extended for a few yards under the 

 embankment of the roadway. On looking back I noticed a thin 

 horizontal deposit of greyish-looking clay above it. Eetuming for 

 its examination I was pleased to find that the thin band in imme- 

 diate contact with the hmestone was almost made up of organic 

 remains, evidently pertaining to the horizon of the Middle Lias, 

 although we were many miles from any recorded development of this 

 formation. I soon removed all I could reach of the deposit, and 

 in my examination had the satisfaction of realizing, as one new 

 genus or species after another presented itself, that I had at last 

 obtained the fauna of Fontaine-etoupe-Four in England ; and so pre- 

 cisely does this fauna correspond with the descriptions of M. Des- 

 longchamps, that a simple translation of his Memoir would almost 

 suffice for its description. 



