68 



MESSES. W. E. ANE-BEWS AND A. J. JUKES-BEOWNE [Feb. 1 894, 



to any other of those in Dorset. The total thickness at Upwey 

 and in the Vale of Wardour is about the same ; there is a similar 

 absence of thick limestones, and a singular prevalence of sandy 

 matter in certain parts of the series : resemblances which suggest 

 that the two localities were about equally distant from the borders 

 of the Purbeck area of deposition, the one from the western, the 

 other from the northern border. If the rate of diminution of thick- 

 ness can be regarded as any guide to the extent of this area, its 

 western limit must have lain within 16 miles of Upwey on the 

 west and within 20 miles of TefFont on the north. It would be very 

 interesting to know whether Purbeck Beds exist beneath the Vale 

 of Pewsey, for we agree with Prof. J. F. Blake in doubting whether 

 the so-called ' Purbeck ' of Swindon is coeval with the true Purbeck 

 of Wiltshire and Dorset. 



VII. List of Fossils. 



The following list is by no means an exhaustive one ; it includes 

 such fossils as we were able to obtain from time to time, but we 

 did not collector attempt to identify all the small bivalves (? Cyclas) 

 which crowd some of the beds, and the ' Cinder-bed ' of Lower 

 Chicksgrove would probably repay more persevering search than we 

 at ere able to bestow upon it. We are indebted to Mr. A. Smith 

 Woodward, of the British Museum (Nat. Hist.), for examining and 

 naming the fishes, and to Messrs. G. Sharman and E. T. Newton for 

 identifying some of the mollusca. 





Lower 



Middle 



Upper 



i 





Purbeck. 





Reptilia. 



* 

 * 



*? 



* 

 * 



* 

 * 



* 

 * 



* 

 * 



* 



* 







Pisces. 



Aster acanthi s verrucosus (spine), Egert. 























1 [Mr. A. Smith Woodward kindly informs us that this species has not 

 hitherto been recorded from Britain. The type occurs in the Lithographic 

 Stone of Solenhofen, and though the Wiltshire specimen is much smaller (pro- 

 bably dwarfed by local conditions) he cannot otherwise distinguish it. He also 

 finds a new fish among those sent to him ; this is related to Macroscmius pectu- 

 ralis, Sauvage, from the Portlandian of France. — Jan. 12th, 1894.] 



