i 



80 



MIDDLE LIAS. 



At Mickelton^ tunnel the shale which lies below the marlstone was exposed to a 

 considerable extent, and yielded a great number of fossils in a high state of preservation. 

 The shales were in parts arenaceous, and formed thin slabs of a fine, bluish sandstone, on 

 which many of the Echinodermata were found. There were also large slabs of ironstone, 

 sixteen inches in thickness, almost entirely composed of shells ; the upper and under surfaces 

 in many of them were crowded with fragments of Pentacrinites and skeletons of Asteriada. 

 Uraster Gaveyi, Forb., figured in our plate, was discovered on the upper surface of a slab of 

 sandstone, twelve inches in thickness, associated with plates and fragments of Pentacrinus 

 robustus, Wr., and several of the Conchifera of the subjoined list, together with compressed 

 shells of Ammonites cajmcoriius, Schloth. 



All the specimens of Tropidaster pedinaius, Forb., Ophioderma Gaveyi, Wr., and 

 Cidaris Edwardsii, Wr., were found attached to the under side of a thick slab of ironstone, 

 about twenty feet below the surface. Almost all the specimens show their ventral surface, 

 and most of them have their spines fixed on the spiniferous tubercles to which they 

 belonged ; several of the star-fishes are as well preserved for anatomical description as if 

 they had been prepared from recent specimens for that purpose. 



Beds of laminated shale and ferruginous clay, the equivalent in age of those at 

 Mickelton, were cut through in making the deep excavations on Hewlett's Hill for the 

 formation of the reservoirs of the Cheltenham Waterworks Company. In the laminated 

 clays the shells of the Mollusca and the tests of the Echinodermata were well preserved, 

 but the fossils in the ferruginous clay, although very abundant, soon perished from the 

 large per-centage of iron which the argile contained. 



The same bands of rock were likewise laid open at Witcombe Park, near Birdlip. In 

 constructing the reservoir for receiving the water fl.owing from the Witcombe Spring for 

 the supply of the City of Gloucester, the fossils were abundant, but mostly fragmentary. 

 In many the shell was preserved, and some fine specimens of Nautilus striatus were 



obtained. 



Fossils from tJie Zone 0/ Ammonites capricornus, hi Gloucestershire. 



Cephalopoda. 



Belemnites unibilicatus, d'Blanv. 



— elongatus. Mill. ■ 



— paxillosus, Schloth. 

 Nautilus striatus, Sow. 



Ammonites ITenleyi, Sow. 



capricornus, Schloth. 

 fimbriatus. Sow. 

 Davasi, Sow. 



Gasteropoda. 



Chemnitzia capricorni, n. sp. 

 Cylindrites capricorni, JFr., n. sp. 

 Trochus imbricatus. Sow. 



Pleurotomaria Anglica, Sow. 



— expansa. Sow. 



— undosus, Schiihl. 



1 " On the Railway Cuttings at the Mickleton Tunnel, &c.," by G. E. Gavey, Esq., with sections; 

 •Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc.,' vol. ix, p. 29. 



