430 Geological Society : — 



during favourable opportunities at the clifF-foot and on the beach at 

 Speeton from 1880 to 1889. The chief points brought forward by 

 the author -were as follows : — 



The sandy blue shales now seen in the cliff near Filey are not in 

 place, but are erratics in the Drift, and most, if not all, of them are 

 derived from the Lias. 



The bituminous shales with Belemnites Owenii, classified as Upper 

 Kimeridge, extend upwards to the Coprolite-bed and the beds de- 

 scribed as Portlandian by Prof. Judd, having been wrongly placed 

 in this part of the section. No unconformity is traceable at the 

 Coprolite-bed, or at any other horizon, between the Jurassic and 

 Cretaceous portions of the clays. 



The clays may be most conveniently divided into zones by re- 

 ference to the Belemnites, as follows : — 



Marly shales below the Ked Chalk=zone of B. minimus and 

 allies. 



Upper division of the " Keocomian," including the " Cement-beds" 

 and part of the Middle Neocomian of Judd = zone of B. semicanali- 

 culatus and allies. 



Lower division of the Neocomian from the top of the Pecten-cinctus 

 zone down to the base of the supposed Lower Neocomian zone of 

 Ammonites noriGus=^zone oi B. jaculum. 



From the base of the noricus-zone to the Coprolite-bed = zone of 

 B. lateralis (zone of Amm, Astierianus of Judd). 



The Bituminous shales below the Coprolite bed:=zone of B. Oivenii 

 and varieties. 



The clays of the zone of Bel. lateralis have strongly marked 

 Jurassic affinities, and it is from this zone that the coronated Am- 

 monites were obtained, these being the beds supposed bj' Leckenby 

 to be of Portlandian age. A very well-marked band of nodules, 

 with some scattered coprolitic pebbles, caps the lateralis-heds, and 

 this band constituted the " Coprolite-bed " of Leckenby. 



The thickness of the clays above the coprolites has been over- 

 estimated ; it is probably not more than 300 feet. 



The ranges which have been assigned to some of the characteristic 

 fossils, especially Ammonites Astierianus, Amm. speetonensis, and 

 Toxaster comjiilanatus, need to be revised and altered. 



The term " Middle Neocomian," as applied in the Speeton section, 

 is unnecessary and misleading, seeing that a " Lower Neocomian" 

 fauna occurs both above and below the beds with Middle Neoco- 

 mian types ; and, as stated by Meyer, marly shales exist between 

 the Red Chalk and the Neocomian clays, strongly suggestive of a 

 passage from the one to the other, and these beds contain many 

 Gault forms. Thus there is probably at Speeton a continuous series 

 of clays from the Jurassic to the Upper Cretaceous, and the deposi- 

 tion of these beds appears to have gone on contemporaneously with 

 the erosion of the beds inland. 



