182 MR. G. W. LAMPLTJGH ON THE SPEETON SEEIES [May 18965, 



between the lower Coprolite Bed (E) and the Bituminous Shales (F) 

 of my published section, though it has already been once answered, 1 

 must here be referred to. The contention is based on a misap- 

 prehension of the valuable section published by Leckenby in 1859, 2 

 for it is beyond doubt that the Bituminous Shales (F of my 

 former paper) are the same strata as the ' Beds Nos. 4 and 5 ' of 

 Leckenby's section which Blake suggests I may not yet have seen. 



These shales have been frequently exposed at Speeton both before 

 and since the publication of my account of the section, and I have 

 carefully examined them to a greater depth than my measure- 

 ments indicated, since (as stated in my previous paper) the folds 

 into which they are locally thrown, and their position near low- 

 water mark on the foreshore, render detailed work on their lower 

 portion very difficult. 



The only beds described by Leckenby that I have not yet had 

 an opportunity of examining are those still lower strata to which he 

 applies the numbers 1, 2, and 3, and assigns a thickness of 30 to 40 

 feet. The fauna is apparently rather better preserved in these beds 

 than in the compressed shales above, and is of undoubted Kimeridgian 

 age, including Ammonites (Perisphinctes)biplecc ; A. (Hoplites) eudoxus 

 =A. evalidus, Bean MS. ; a form near A. alternans, labelled A, 

 Kapfii, Opp., in some collections ; and Belemnites Troslayanus, d'Orb. 



Specimens from this horizon occur in all the old collections pre- 

 served in our public museums, but the only examples that I have myself 

 obtained have been from nodules washed up on the beach. Mr. E. 

 S. Herries, however, has been more fortunate, having some years 

 ago found an exposure of the strata on the foreshore north of 

 Speeton from which he was able to collect all the above-mentioned 

 species, and I have to thank him for his kindness in so readily 

 placing these, with other specimens from his extensive collection, at 

 my disposal. The same horizon seems, as will presently be shown, 

 formerly to have been exposed in one of the clay-pits at Knapton, 

 14 miles inland. 



Our knowledge of the lowermost portion of the Speeton section, 

 below the top of the Upper Kimeridge Shales, must therefore still 

 rest on Leckenby's meagre but probably quite accurate description. 

 I have before pointed out that the so-called ' Middle Kimeridge ' 

 and ' Lower Kimeridge ' mentioned by Prof. Judd 3 and others 4 

 as occurring in Filey Bay seem, as now admitted by Blake, 5 to 

 consist entirely of glacially-transported masses of shale, chiefly of 

 Lower Lias age, such as characterize the drift-deposits of this part 

 of the coast. 



•A well-boring sunk by the Filey Waterworks Company in a field 

 adjoining the railway-station at Filey, after passing through 190 feet 



1 * Argiles de Speeton,' op. cit. l re partie, p. 210 ; sep. cop. p. 30. 

 3 ' Geologist,' vol. ii. p. 9. 



3 « On the Speeton Clay,' Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc. vol. xxiv. (1868) p. 240. 



4 J. F. Blake, Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc. vol. xxxi. (1875) p. 211. 



5 * Excursion to the East Coast of Yorkshire,' Proc. Geol. Assoc, vol. xii, 

 (1891) p. 213. 



