MOORE ABNORMAL SECONDARY DEPOSITS. 527 



slightly anterior in age to tlie Rhastic Avicula-contorta beds, from 

 the absence of that shell in them, and the presence of others, which 

 he considers may represent the Muschelkalk, though he would in- 

 clude them in the Ehaetic period. Before the publication of his 

 paper, when applied to by Dr. Duncan for my collection of corals 

 from this locality, I expressed my opinion that all these beds were 

 of the age of the Lower Lias, though deposited under very abnormal 

 conditions. 



A reference to the Camel, Shepton, and other sections, where the 

 succession from the Keuper through the Rhaetic and Liassic beds 

 occurs, will show that where there is undoubted uniformity of depo- 

 sition the absence of any representative of the Sutton Stone is un- 

 questionable. A consideration of the Table of organic remains and 

 their range, given by Mr. Tawney, shows a most marked distinction 

 between the palaeontology of the Sutton Stone and that of the Ehaetic 

 beds. The latter occur in many places in the district; and had the 

 Sutton Stone belonged to this period, palaeontological evidence would 

 not have been wanting ; but the only fossils quoted as common to 

 the two horizons are Myophoria postera, Monotis decussata, Plicatida 

 intusstriata, and scales of Gyrolepis Alberti. The latter, after what 

 I have said of the Frome district, may readily be supposed to be 

 derived. The two former are not characteristic, as I have shown 

 them to have a wide range in the Lias ; and, from the great difficulty 

 attending a determination of some of the Sutton-stone shells, it is 

 possible that the Myoplioria may not belong to that genus, which 

 has never been found above the Ehaetic series. These facts, I think, 

 are sufficient to show that a different horizon must be sought for 

 the Sutton and Southerndown series. 



2. It is also proposed by Mr. Tawney to separate the Southern- 

 down group from the Lias, leaving the Liassic Ammonites- Buch- 

 landi beds unconformable above them ; but their position must follow 

 as a consequence upon any determination arrived at for the Sutton 

 Stone. 



The beds under consideration appear to have been deposited in a 

 basin of Carboniferous Limestone, and are cut off abruptly by that 

 formation on the north, from Sutton to Dunraven; and between these 

 places they have an average breadth of about half a mile. On follow- 

 ing the southern edge of the limestone to Brocastle, that village may 

 be seen in the centre of a narrow neck of Lias, on which the Carboni- 

 ferous Limestones of the Golden Mile and Ewenney encroach ; this 

 narrow Liassic belt connects the latter formation on the south with 

 that within the basin of Langan and Bridgend, before referred to. 



In the Sutton section I have indicated a break between the 

 Carboniferous Limestone and the lowest Sutton Stone, in order to 

 point out that, assuming the Liassic age of the latter, there is evidence 

 of the presence of a Liassic fauna before the deposition of any of the 

 stratified Liassic beds ; and it will be shown that between these 

 points must also be interposed a great thickness of Liassic conglo- 

 merates, which may have been accumulated contemporaneously with 

 Liassic beds elsewhere. 



