Vol. 59.] AND LOWEK LIAS OF SEDBUKY CLIFF. 393 



4 inches of black shale are replete with the ordinary Lower Rhsetic 

 fossils at certain horizons. Bed 7 is a useful datum-level upon 

 which to correlate sections, and is separated from a similar lime- 

 stone-bed by 6 inches of fossiliferous shale. 



Reference to Edward Wilson's record of the Pylle-Hill section, 1 

 and that given by Mr. W. H. Wickes of a section at Redland (New 

 Clifton), Bristol, 2 will show how closely the Sedbury-Cliff section at 

 this horizon resembles them. An interesting record is that of the 

 teeth of Acrodus minimus from Bed 7 — a somewhat high horizon for 

 this species. The specimens oiPecten valoniensis are well-preserved in 

 Bed 7, which exhibits two lithological varieties. The one is a hard, 

 slightly pyritic, and regularly-bedded rock ; the other, extremely 

 hard, blackish-blue, and occurring in somewhat lenticular masses. 

 In that portion of the cliff which includes the step-fault, the shales 

 immediately above 56 have suffered much from weathering and 

 their nearness to the surface. Doubtless — as investigation at other 

 points in the cliff shows — the lower portion of the immediately- 

 superincumbent shales was once black, but is now brownish-black 

 and greenish-grey with whitish streaks, owing to atmospheric 

 influences. Bed 5 a is only grouped provisionally with the Lower 

 Rhaetic, and, although Avieula contorta has not been recorded there- 

 from as yet, I have little doubt that if it had been possible to 

 investigate the deposit more thoroughly, that lamellibranch would 

 have been found. 



Brodie's ' Cypris- & Plant - Bed,' or the Estheria-Bed, is 

 another good datum-level. Lithologically, it resembles its equiva- 

 lent in the North- West Gloucestershire sections, of which I have 

 given details elsewhere. 3 In places it presents the ' Landscape ' 

 phenomenon noticed by Brodie ; but the Esiherice are very rare, and 

 I have not recorded Naiaditce. Concerning this and the succeeding 

 beds belonging to the Rhsetic Series, and also the one classed as the 

 basement-bed of the Lias, Brodie wrote : — 



' At this cliff as well as at Aust, and on Bedminster Down, the " Cypris- and 

 Plant-Bed" is seen in its proper position, and in every case possesses a true 

 " Landscape ; ' character. This, in addition to its position and fossils, serves 

 to identify it with the same bed at Wainlode, Westbury, etc., etc., and also 

 with the "firestone" of Warwickshire. Thus far the resemblance is clear, 

 but the intervening stratum between the " Insect-Limestone " and " Cypris- 

 Bed " is evidently wanting in other places. The " Landscape-Stone," from its 

 peculiar mineralogical aspects, is in all probability more closely connected with 

 the <: Cypris- and Plant-Bed," than with the ''Insect-Limestone," with which it 

 only blends when the clays which separate the two are absent. The " Land- 

 scape-Stone " encloses many Cypris and fragments of minute Plants, and a 

 few small JFish.' 4 



In some parts of the cliff the Estheria-Bed occurs in nodular masses 

 and exhibits arborescent markings, but it may be observed to pass 



1 Quart. Journ. G-eol. Soc. vol. xlvii (1891) table facing p. 546. 



2 Proc. Bristol Nat. Soc. vol. ix (1899) pi. i, facing p. 100. 

 ? Ibid. vol. x (1901) pp. 72-76. 



4 ' Fossil Insects ' 1845, p. 84. 



