260 A. T. METCALFE ON VERTEBRATE REMAINS 
like masses of a very hard character, which are weathered out and 
form a prominent feature in the cliffs; they seem to defy all 
weathering and wave-friction, thus giving the cliffs, in some parts, 
quite a rugged aspect. ‘These masses appear to be calcareous con- 
cretions; and it has been suggested that their calcareous material 
may be largely due to that removed from fossilized bones and other 
organic remains. I do not think, however, that much weight can be 
given to the suggestion. It must be borne in mind that towards 
Bishops Lydeard and Crowcombe (Somersetshire), the Upper Sand- 
stones become so exceedingly calcareous that they might loeally be 
almost considered a limestone, and, indeed, are largely quarried to be 
burned for lime; this excess of calcareous matter, Mr. W. A. E. 
Ussher, F.G.S8., of the Geological Survey, in his valuable paper on 
the Triassic Rocks of Somerset and Devon (Q.J.G.8. vol. xxxii. p.370), 
attributes to the denuding agents of the Triassic period having 
transported calcareous sediments derived from the occasional lime- 
stones occurring in the shales and grits of the Devonian and Culm- 
measure strata of the south-west of England. It is probable that 
a similar origin must be ascribed to the hard calcareous masses 
between Budleigh Salterton and Sidmouth. Nevertheless it is 
manifest that, by the process described by Mr. Carter, a large num- 
ber of remains may have become wholly ‘‘ removed” and lost to the 
paleontologist ; while the presence, at numerous spots, of isolated 
bone fragments such as I haye described, bespeaks the fact that a 
comparative abundance of vertebrate life was maintained during the 
Triassic period, and suggests that the rareness of Triassic fossils may 
be due, not so much to the paucity of animal life during that pericd, 
as to the fact that the strata then formed afforded no suitable con- 
ditions for the preservation of organic remains. 
The following are the most noteworthy of the remains obtained 
by Mr. Carter and deposited by him in the British Museum, Crom- 
well Road, South Kensington; those numbered 1 to 11 inclusive 
were found in the talus under High Peake Hill, and the last 
(No. 12) came from the quarry at Shortwood Hill :— 
1. Spine. Curved like a boar’s tusk, bluntly pointed, 33 inches 
in the arc, by 42 inch in greatest diameter when entire. Solid, 
with bone structure throughout (fig. 2). 
Fig. 2.— Curved Spine from talus under High Peake Hill. 
(Natural size.) 
2. Portion (? middle) of jawbone, bearing the ‘‘ honeycomb-like 
