110 



H. KEEPING AND E. B. TAWNEY ON THE BEDS AT 



here is, in ascending order, freshwater Lower Headon, Brockenhurst 

 zone, Venus-bed, then freshwater Upper Headon, which agrees 

 with the succession in Whitecliff Bay. Yet in the New-Forest 

 section (op. cit. p. 170) we find the Brockenhurst bed placed above the 

 marine band or Middle Headon of Totland Bay — in other words, 

 the natural succession is inverted. 



Again, in Headon Hill as we have seen, an imaginary Brocken- 

 hurst bed (of which the Colwell-Bay Middle Headon is stated to be 

 the equivalent) is placed above the Upper Headon, in ground which 

 is really occupied by the Osborne beds. If the Brockenhurst bed is 

 at a higher horizon than the Middle Headon of Headon Hill, then 

 where is the marine Middle Headon at Whitecliff Bay ? 



We can scarcely adopt a theory which makes the Colwell-Bay bed 

 occupy a higher horizon than that of Headon Hill, because it is 

 supposed to contain more Brockenhurst fossils, when the latter 

 fauna is found below the zone with (Colwell-Bay or) marine Headon 

 fossils both at Whitecliff Bay and near Brockenhurst. When once 

 the position of the Brockenhurst fauna is recognized (and it has 

 been correctly described by previous observers), the inconsistency of 

 the theory is apparent. 



Affinities of the Brockenhurst Fauna. — Seeing that the Brockenhurst 

 fauna, if different in age from the Marine Headon, is older, instead 

 of being younger, it would be rather anomalous to find that " while 

 nearly one third of the Hordwell and Headon-Hill marine shells are 

 Barton forms, not more than one fifth of those occurring at Brocken- 

 hurst, Colwell Bay, and Whitecliff are found at Barton." We have 

 already mentioned one feature in the lists on which this statement 

 is based by which the question is almost begged. We must next 

 allude to what seem to us clerical errors, in order to justify the 

 very different statistics which we have obtained by inspection of 

 the Edwards collection, supplemented by our own researches. 



In the Headon-Hill list we observe nine species * that are said 

 to pass down into Barton beds, while in the Brockenhurst list this 

 range is denied to them ; and besides these nine, the range into 

 Barton, as proved by the Edwards collection, is omitted in the Brock- 

 enhurst list in the case of twenty- two other species. Discrepancies 

 of this sort must seriously detract from the value of any statistics 

 based on such lists. 



of the rails, and will never be seen again here) ; the upper beds were yellowish 

 clayey sands, poor in fossils. Sufficient characteristic Brockenhurst fossils may 

 still be seen, however, on the old spoil-banks of the date of the making of the 

 original single line, about forty-two years ago. By Lady-Cross Bridge the 

 cutting is also grassed over ; but evidence can still be found of the Yenus-bed 

 in the side drains and of the Upper Headon in the slopes above it. 



* These species are — Borsonia sulcata, Nematura parvula, Mytilus strigil- 

 latus, Cardium obliquum, Trigonoccelia deltoidea, Lucina obesa, L. concava, 

 Panopcea subeffusa, and Scintilla angusta. On the other hand, an error on the 

 opposite side, omitting the range into Barton beds in the case of Marginella 

 simplex and Corbula cuspidata, goes only one quarter of the way towards 

 redressing the balance. 



