314 Geological Society. 
reticulate structure in thin sections, and some of them, when 
isolated, show radiating spines as well; they are, however, not 
capable of specific determination. One or two specimens of 
foraminifera have also been seen. ‘The deposit underlies beds 
of the Upper Gondwana Stage. The bed also contains palagonite, 
volcanic glass, pumice, mineral-fragments (such as_ plagioclase, 
quartz, augite, and possibly bornblende), and black metallic 
spherules of iron and manganese. The last sometimes partly 
fill the radiolarian tests, and sometimes encrust the pumice and 
palagonite; they give the manganese-reaction with a borax-bead. 
The author concludes that the deposit is of truly abysmal origin, 
similar to those described in the Challenger Reports; and he 
points out the remarkable interest of such an occurrence in 
Peninsular India, a region which appears to have been a land-area 
since Paleozoic times. 
2. ‘The Rheetic Beds of the South-Wales Direct Line. By 
Prof. Sidney Hugh Reynolds, M.A., F.G.S., and Arthur Vaughan, 
Ksq., BA., B.se., F.G.8. 
After a reference to the literature of the subject the following 
exposures are described: the Stoke-Gifford and the Lilliput or 
Chipping-Sodbury sections. From the first section the Bone-Bed is 
completely absent. The beds here rest upon tea-green marl, and are 
covered by the Cotham Marble. A section to the east of Lilliput 
Bridge shows two large rounded hummocks of Paleozoic rock 
projecting into the Rhetic, and in both cases the Black Shale 
is deposited on it in an arched manner, forming an anticline 
of deposition. There is also a very rich Bone-Bed at the base, 
which is not uniformly distributed. The upper beds correspond 
with those of Stoke Gifford. In correlating these rocks with those 
of neighbouring areas, a table of general sequence is given, in 
which the Lower Rheetic is divided into three and the Upper into 
two stages, which are correlated with the notation of Richardson 
and Wilson. This is followed by a range-table of the typical 
Rheetic mollusca: Cardium rheticum and C. cloacinum, Schizodus 
Ewaldi, Pecten valoniensis, and Avicula contorta. Paleontological 
notes on the invertebrata and vertebrata follow. New species of 
Anomia, Plicatula, Modiola, and Cardinia are described ; notice is 
given of other Rhetic mollusca; and a range-table is appended of 
the commonest mollusca that occur at Sodbury and Stoke Gifford. 
The reptiles, amphibia, and fishes referred to are all known species. 
A general account is given of the distribution of the Bone-Bed 
in the Bristol district. In Somerset, except at Emborough and 
Watchet, no true Bone-Bed has been recorded; in the district 
immediately north of Bristol there is a single, well-marked Bone- 
Bed at the base of the Black-Shale Series, or very slightly above it ; 
while in the Gloucester district the principal Bone-Bed tends to lie 
at a greater distance from the base of the Black Shales. For these 
reasons, the authors think that the principal Bone-Beds in the 
various sections cannot be regarded as homotaxial equivalents. 
