QX A IN-EW DEPOSIT OF PLIOCENE AT ST. ERTH, COEITWALL. 65 



9. 0)1 a NEW Deposit of Pliocene Age at St.Eeth, near the Land's 

 End, Coenwall. By the late Seaeles V. Wood, Esq., E.G.S. 

 (Eead November 5, 1884.) 



In the autumn of 1883 my friend Mr. E. W. Harmer, E.G.S., being 

 at Penzance, chanced to hear of the occurrence near that place of a 

 bed containing some shells not recognized as now living on the coast 

 of Cornwall. Being introduced to Mr. Thos. Cornish, of Penzance, 

 as a gentleman who had taken an interest in the matter, he got him 

 to forward to me such of the shells as he possessed. These consisted 

 of specimens of Nassa mutahilis, N. serrata, and Turritella trijjlicata ; 

 and I sent them to Mr. Eobert Bell, E.G.S., to see and to show to 

 Dr. J. Gwyn Jeffreys. We all three doubted their being genuine, 

 the Nassa presenting, indeed, the appearance of imperfect fossiliza- 

 tion. 



Sometime afterwards Mr. Cornish sent me some more specimens. 

 These removed my doubts ; but from the incredulity with which 

 Mr. Bell was met in the comparisons which he made of them for 

 me with specimens in the recent and foreign collections of the 

 British Museum, I pointed out the desirability of having the pits 

 reopened before I brought the matter to the attention of the Society, 

 and this Mr. Cornish determined to have done. 



The past exceptionally dry summer in Cornwall has afforded the 

 opportunity for this ; and on the 26th of August last a party con- 

 sisting of our Eoreign Secretary, Prof. Warington Smyth, and 

 twelve other gentlemen, mostly geologists, residing in the county, 

 accompanied Mr. Cornish and witnessed the reopening of one of 

 the disused excavations, obtaining also a few of the shells. Some 

 of the clay then extracted Mr. Cornish despatched to me ; and 

 from it and more since had I have extracted several of the species 

 mentioned in the sequel, including among them two out of the three 

 first to sent me by Mr. Cornish. 



In the interval Mr. Cornish got together what further specimens 

 he could hear of, including some entrusted to him by Mr. Goodman, 

 of St. Erth, and put me into communication with Mr. JSTicholas 

 Whitley, of Truro, who had brought the subject of this fossiliferous 

 bed incidentally before the Boyal Geological Society of Cornwall in 

 1882, and Mr. E. W. MiUett, of Marazion, who was engaged in 

 searching the material of it for Ostracoda and Eoraminifera, both of 

 whom sent me what moUuscan remains they had obtained from it. 

 Since the reopening of the pit, also, the Yicar of St. Erth has 

 interested himself in the matter, and sent me some further contribu- 

 tions to the total species that I have in this way got together. 



Mr. Cornish informs me that the area occupied by the bed, so far 

 as its extent is known, does not exceed an acre, the first excavation 

 in it (the one that he has now got reopened) having been com- 

 menced about 50 years ago, for the moulding sand upon which the 



Q.J.G.S. No. 161. F 



