MOORE — ABNORMAL SECONDARY DEPOSITS. 479 



quarry, on the upper surface of which I had hoped to find its con- 

 tinuation, but no trace of it was present. The hollows at the top 

 were filled with Oolitic debris, and with the sulphate of barytes 

 before mentioned. 



In an examination of the fossils contained in this peculiar deposit, 

 resting as it does on a floor of Palaeozoic rock, and on a coast-line 

 along which subsequent formations may have been subject to de- 

 nudation, it would not have been singular to have found an ad- 

 mixture of the organic remains of several periods ; but beyond a 

 small Spirifer, and a few stems of Encrinites of Carboniferous- 

 limestone age, this is not the case. It may, therefore, be safely 

 inferred that the Whatley deposit represents a special horizon in 

 time, which I think will have to be placed at the junction of the 

 Lower and the Middle Lias, or between the Spirifer-bank and the 

 Gryphcea-cymhium beds of the Camerton section ; and the discovery 

 of Leptcena rostrata and other remains common to the two sections 

 helps to support this conclusion. 



The organic contents of the Whatley deposit show by their con- 

 dition that they were not immediately covered by other deposits. 

 The Spirifers and the Bivalves are usually in single valves, and the 

 Echini and Pentacrinites are dismembered. This has given rise to 

 many interesting instances of parasitic attachment ; for instance, 

 on the interior of a Spirifera Deslongchampsii, there is attached a 

 Flicatula spinosa, and to this again a Thecidium JBouchardii, and 

 Bryozoa of the genera Berenicia and Neuropora. 



Of the Vertebrata I have obtained from "Whatley several small 

 striated teeth, which appear to have belonged to a very small 

 Ichthyosaioms. Of fish -remains there are present the teeth of 

 Hyhodus and several other genera ; a single dermal spine or scale 

 probably represents the Baiadce, and there are also several de- 

 pressed spinous-looking bones or teeth not unlike Sphenonchus. I 

 have found teeth of the same species of Hyhodus in some of the 

 deposit from May given me by my friend Mr. Davidson ; and the 

 same species occur also in the Leptsena-bed at Camerton. 



The Cephalopoda, with the exception of Belemnites clavatus and 

 B. acutus, are very rare. I have found a fragment only of a 

 Nautilus and a Rhyncholites similar to one figured by M. Deslong- 

 champs. 



The Brachiopoda, on the contrary, are very abundant, and pre- 

 sent a variety of forms new to this country. Amongst these are 

 several species referred, with some doubt, to Argiope. Whatever it 

 may be, I have previously found the same genus at Dundry, and 

 described it as Spirifera oolitica ; and the same species passes up into 

 the great Oolite. Of this genus I have two, if not three, species 

 from Whatley, Argiope ? Suessii, E. Des., and A. ? Periey^i, E. Des., 

 the latter being very abundant. Leptoena rostrata, previously 

 noticed at Camerton, again occurs, and associated, as before, with 

 L. Bouchardii. With the Ehynchonella furcillata, which is plen- 

 tiful, we have two new forms — B. egretta, Des., and 72. fallax, 

 Des. Spirifera, again, afibrds two, if not three, new species. These 



