OF &EJSTTC BEDS IN LEICESTERSHIRE. 215 



decomposed ; and these are overlain by a thin irregular band of hard 

 reddish sandstone from | an inch to 1 inch thick, whose surface is 

 covered with casts of Axinus (formerly called Pullastra). 



Then come about 2 feet of finely laminated black shales (No. 6). 

 It was this bed which, in February 1874, yielded me the first fossil 

 evidence {Cardium rhceticum and Avicula contorta) by which I was 

 enabled to prove these beds to be of Rhaetic age. 



From the next stratum (No. 7) in March 1874, 1 got a Starfish, the 

 first found in British Rhaetics. Curiously enough, the same species 

 occurred, about that time, to Professor F. Romer in the Rhaetic beds 

 of Hildesheim *, whilst it has since been found by Mr. G. Embrey at 

 Westbury- on- Severn. It has been determined by Dr. Wright to be 

 his OpMolepis Damesii. I have recently found a thin band in the 

 shales almost made up of the remains of these beautiful Starfishes, 

 their joints occurring by thousands. There are apparently at least 

 two distinct species. 



This bed (No. 7) consists of rather dark shales with sandy partings. 

 Here I also found a new species of Pholidophorus, which I propose, 

 provisionally, to name P. Mottiana, after my friend Mr. F. T. 

 Mott, President of the Leicester Literary and Philosophical Society. 

 Avicula contorta and Cardium rhceticum also occur. There are, too, 

 some curious oval markings, with fine stria? radiating from the centre ; 

 but these may be inorganic. Worm-tracks are numerous. A white 

 amorphous mineral, Kaolinite, with a little bitumen, fills many fissures • 

 in these beds of shale ; and the cavities left by radiating selenite crystals 

 cover the surfaces in great abundance. Flakes of mica spangle many 

 of the sandy partings which occur in the upper part. 



The uppermost shales seen in the section (No. 8) are very light 

 in colour, and about 4 feet thick. All the shells already men- 

 tioned occur in them, together with Modiola minima. 



Indications of a bed of hard rubbly limestone are to be seen 

 capping the brick-pit sections. Drainage-operations higher up the 

 crest of the Spinney Hills, in connexion with new streets to be 

 built there, have, however, lately offered a good opportunity of 

 examining beds somewhat higher in the series than those already 

 noticed. 



The bed of limestone (No. 9) is nodular, the nodules occurring at 

 intervals of a foot or more. They are intensely hard, but soon 

 break up into cubical masses on exposure to the air, being traversed 

 in all directions by cracks filled with calcite. I have recognized this 

 limestone as entering inio the composition of Roman pavements 

 found in Leicester; it would, in fact, present ready-made tesserae to 

 the hand of the artisan. It has a conchoidal fracture, and is of a 

 bluish tint, but grey on the outside. Fossils are very rare in it ; but 

 I have found casts of Estheria minuta and Avicula contorta on the 

 outer surfaces. 



A second nodular bed of limestone exists, I believe, about 2 feet 

 above the one just mentioned, and then beds of light- coloured clay 

 and sand ; but here the drift obscures the section, and, as it thickens 

 * Zeitschr. d. deutsch. geol. Ges. 1874. 



