274 PROF. T. M‘K. HUGHES ON SPONGIA PARADOXICA. 
a smaller degree, interwoven with the ramifying zoophytes before 
mentioned.” 
Woodward mentions the fossils in his ‘Synoptical Table of 
British Organic Remains,’ 1830, and in his ‘ Geology of Norfolk, 
1833, and refers in illustration to the figure given by Webster in 
his paper on Alcyonia, Trans. Geol. Soc. vol. ii. pl. xxvii. f.1. But 
on hunting up this reference, we find that Webster is describing 
what he calls the Tulip Alcyonium, and makes no mention of 
Hunstanton, or of the Red Rock and associated beds, or of 
Spongia paradoxica; and, moreover, he does not appear to be 
describing the same fossil. So this appears to be only the 
reference to a picture of an organism which Woodward thought 
the Spongia paradoaica might have resembled. 
Rose (1835-86), describing the Red Chalk of Hunstanton, borrows 
largely from Taylor. ‘‘ It is,” he says, ‘‘ a compact limestone coloured 
by oxide of iron, containing many small dark-green siliceous pebbles, 
and is divided into two beds: the uppermost, about seven inches 
in thickness, abounds in organic remains; this bed is intersected 
throughout by a ramose Zoophite, the nature of which is not satis- 
factorily determined; and the two characteristic species of Belemnites 
are in great abundance ; Terebratula biplicata and Inocerami are 
numerous, and one species of Nautilus occurs. The lower bed is 
three feet five inches in thickness, contains less of the zoophite, 
and fewer fossils than the upper, but the siliceous pebbles are more 
numerous” (vol. vii. p. 181). 
Again, under the head of ‘ Chalk without Flints, he says (l.c. 
p- 275) ‘* Under this denomination I include all the Lower Cretaceous 
beds. At Hunstanton Cliff,where they are exposed, reposing imme- 
diately upon the red chalk (as it has hitherto been called), three 
natural divisions of them may be observed; the lowest is made up 
almost entirely of a ramose zoophite, which strongly characterizes 
it; the middle above has a gray colour and arenaceous texture, 
abounds in organic remains ; the gray shale [shade ?] forcibly distin- 
guishes this; and the uppermost bed, usually denominated the lower 
chalk, which here forms the upper portion of the cliff, is readily 
distinguished by its pure whiteness. It has been attempted to sepa- 
rate and arrange these beds by their zoological characters; the 
zoophitic bed has been considered the eguvalent of the upper green- 
sand or firestone; and the gray bed that of the chalk-marl ; but I 
find the characteristic fossils of the upper green-sand, and chalk- 
marl so intermingled in the gray bed, that it is impossible to draw 
a line of demarcation between those two strata...... The lowest 
of these beds (No. 4 of the section of Hunstanton Cliff) reposes upon 
the thin seam of dark red argillaceous matter which separates it 
from the red limestone or Gault equivalent. The texture of this 
bed varies, some portions of it being very loose, others exceedingly 
hard and compact; its substance is throughout intersected by a 
ramose zoophite, the original texture of which is so completely ob- 
literated that it appears impossible to determine precisely the nature 
of what it is the relic: the formation of the stratum is best ex- 
