242 Geological Society:— 



mufina variolaria (bed No. 16 of Mr. Prestwich's Section of White- 

 cliff Bay, Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc. vol. ii. pi. 9) ; the N. variolaria 

 bed of Selseaand of Stubbington ; and the Shepherd's Gutter Bed at 

 Bramshaw, New Forest. The beds above the last-named are — 1st, a 

 portion of No. 19 of the Whitecliff Bay section and the Coral-bed of 

 Stokes Bay and Hunting Bridge (New Forest) ; and 2nd, the Shell- 

 bed at Hunting Bridge, and Pebble-bed, with shell-casts, at High- 

 cliff. The lowest bed of this group is the Cypra?a-bed of Selsea, 

 the Cardita-bed of Stubbington, and the Brook-bed in the New 

 Forest. B. This group is more sandy than the last; it has two 

 fossil-beds, one of which contains Cerithium yiganteum (at Hillhead, 

 Stubbington ; and half-a-mile west of Thorney Station, Brackles- 

 ham Bay). C. This is a sandy group, and is remarkable for the 

 profusion of Nummulina Icevigata in its principal fossil-bearing beds. 

 D. This embraces the lowest fossiliferous sands of Bracklesham Bay. 

 Its distinctive shells are Cardita acuticosta and Cyprcea tuberculosa. 



Some species of Molluscs pass upwards from the Bracklesham 

 into the Barton series ; yet the fauna of the Bracklesham Beds has a 

 sufficiently distinct facies ; and the following species range through 

 this series and are confined to it — Cardita planicosta, Sanguinolaria 

 Hollowaysii, Solen obliquus, Cytherea suberycinoides, Voluta Cithara, 

 and Turritella sulcifera. Pecten comeus is also characteristic, but is 

 met with higher up. 



The Bracklesham Beds seen at Whitecliff Bay were first treated 

 of, and Mr. Prestwich's section referred to in detail. No. 6 (a 

 pebble-bed) of this published section is regarded by Mr. Fisher as the 

 base of the Bracklesham series, the upper limit being somewhere in 

 No. 19. Descriptions followed of the beds seen at Bracklesham Bay ; 

 the eastern side of Selsea ; at the Mixen Rocks ; at well-sinkings 

 near Bury Cross ; at Stubbington (including the Cerithium-bed at 

 Hillhead, discovered by the author in 1856); Netley ; Bramshaw, 

 Brook, and Hunting Bridge (where H. Keeping has lately found a 

 fossil-bed high in the series), in the New Forest. Indications of the 

 western range of the marine shells of " Bracklesham " age were 

 quoted as occurring at Lychett near Poole, and as very rare (one 

 Ostrea) near Corfe. 



Bracklesham Beds, containing marine forms, seen at Alum Bay 

 (Isle of Wight) and at Highcliff (near Christchurch) were then 

 described in full. The Bracklesham series is regarded by Mr. Fisher 

 as commencing in both these sections a few feet beneath a dark- 

 green clay (part of No. 29 of Mr. Prestwich's section of Alum Bay) 

 containing a peculiar variety of Nummulina planulata and many shells 

 of the Barton fauna. 



Remarks were also made on the estuarine condition of the lower 

 Bracklesham Beds in their western area ; on the probable sources of 

 their materials ; on the successive deepenings of the old sea-bottom, 

 and the formation of the pebble-beds ; and lastly on the fitness of 

 the Bracklesham and Barton series as a field for research in the 

 history of Molluscan Species. 



