Vol. 59.] A LOWER-GREENSAND FOSSILIFEROUS BAND. 245 



unnamed belemnite occasionally found in the Hythe Beds, which is 

 probably the young of B. Eivaldi, von Stromb. 



The whole assemblage is peculiar, both in the presence of an 

 admixture of forms which have not before been found together in 

 the same bed, and in the absence of species commonly associated 

 with those which it includes. Thus, while the general facies is 

 closely allied to that of the Upper Greensand, we note the absence 

 of such characteristic Upper-Greensand species as Terebratella 

 jpectita and Pecten asper ; while the biplicated Terebratula and the 

 Terebrirostra which are present are distinct varieties of the Upper- 

 Greensand forms. On the other hand, in comparing the fauna with 

 that of other sandy deposits of Lower-Greensand age, we find a 

 few points of resemblance but still greater differences, both in the 

 presence of numerous species absent from these beds, and in the 

 absence of others, like Terebratula sella and Eocogyra sinuata, which 

 are so generally prevalent in them. 



Notes on the Correlation and Classification of the 

 Fossiliferous Band. 



Our chief purpose in this paper has been to place on record a 

 description of the Shenley fossiliferous bed and its fauna, without 

 attempting a final judgment on the difficult question of its strati- 

 graphical classification, which can be more adequately discussed 

 when the researches of one of us into the British Lower Cretaceous 

 system as a whole have reached a more advanced stage. It seems 

 desirable, however, to point out the general bearing of our present 

 results upon this question. 



From the preceding palaeontological notes and subsequent fossil- 

 lists, it will be seen that the new fauna, though including some 

 elements that link it to previously-known fossiliferous horizons of 

 the Lower Greensand of the South-Midland and South-Eastern 

 counties of England, presents on the whole a still closer connexion 

 with the fauna of the Upper Greensand. 



Nevertheless, the bed is distinctly seen to underlie the Gault-Clay 

 throughout the sections, and moreover there seems also to be strong 

 evidence that this clay must represent the Lower Gault. During 

 our investigation, the clay in the sand-pit sections was not in good 

 condition for yielding organic remains, and the only fossils observed 

 in it by us were Belemnites minimus (abundant) ; Inoceramus con- 

 centric/as ; a few other ill-preserved shells, which were not identified ; 

 and the tooth of a fish. But at a distance of only 1100 yards 

 to the southward of the sand-pits there is a brickyard in the Gault, 

 from which, in a band midway in the clay, Mr. Jukes-Browne 

 records an adequate list of ammonites and other fossils, including 

 such unmistakable Lower-Gault forms as Ammonites intevruptus 

 and Amm. Beudanti, along with others which occur also in the 

 Upper Gault. 1 



1 ' The Cretaceous Rocks of Britain ' vol. i, Mem. Geol. Surv. (1900) p. 285. 



