272 EEV. p. B. BEODIE ON TWO EH^TIC 



21. On two Rhjetic Sectioits in Waewickshire. By the Rev. P. B. 

 Beodie, M.A'., F.G.S. (Bead February 24, 1886.) 



A few years ago a very interesting section of the Bhsetic beds, the 

 best yet laid ojjen in the county, was exposed in a cutting on the 

 railway at Summer Hill, between Stratford and Alcester, near the 

 village of Binton. The line runs nearly east and west ; the strata 

 are much disturbed at the east end of the cutting, and have a consider- 

 able dip to the south-east. On the east the Insect-bed, probably the 

 bottom one of the series, with insect remains, viz. wings of Libellula 

 and elytra of Coleoptera, is seen, the section dipping towards Binton 

 Hill, and in that direction, at the extreme end, being on a level with 

 the line. This is underlain by the firestone and Estheria-hed, 

 succeeded by a considerable thickness of Ehsetic black and grey 

 shales, some parts of which are highly charged with pyrites and 

 loaded with the usual characteristic fossils. A band of blue nodular 

 stone in the shales probably Tepresents the Pecten-hed. I did not 

 observe the Bone-bed ; but if any opening had been exposed towards 

 Bidford, on the" west, it might have been present where the under- 

 lying New Red Triassic marls come in. Apparently there was no 

 sandstone, as at Copt Heath, near Knowle, at the base of the shales 

 with Schizodus cloacinus (Pullastra arenicola) ; but on the whole 

 these shales are several feet thicker than in any other sections 

 hitherto exposed in Warwickshire. The Ehgetic fossils are better 

 preserved here than usual, certainly better than at Wainlode and 

 Westbury cliffs in Gloucestershire ; many of the shells, though, as 

 usual, very fragile, retain their test. They include the following 

 genera and species : — 



Fish-scales. 

 Avicula coutorta. 



solitaria. 



Cardium rhjjeticum. 

 Pecten valoniensis. 

 Schizodus (Pullastra) cloacinus. 

 Modiola minima. 



Myophoria postera. 

 Pteromya crowcombeia. 

 Placunopsis alpinus. 

 Natica Oppelii. 

 Trochus ? 

 Ophiolepis Damesi. 



Unfortunately I could not ascertain the exact position of Ophiolepis 

 in the section even after a careful search, as the specimen was found 

 in a small piece of dark pyritous shale containing Avicula coutorta 

 lying loose in the cutting. At Westbury Cliff the original discoverer 

 of this radiate in England informed me that he obtained it from a 

 bed of black shale about two inches thick underlying the shales with 

 Cardium rhceticum, and midway between the Estheria-hed and the 

 upper of the two large bone-beds. My late friend Dr. Wright 

 places it in the Cardium-shales just above the upper bone-bed, and 

 immediately below the grey Avicula-contorta shales. As Avicula 

 coutorta and another small bivalve are associated with the Ophiolepis 

 at Summer Hill, it would appear to be somewhat higher up in the 

 series than at Westbury, and the shale at the latter place is much 

 harder and darker, and more compact, with no pyrites, than at the 



