88 



THE GEOLOGIST. 



The Bracklesham beds seen at "V^Tiitecliff Bay were first treated of, and 

 Mr. Prestwich's section referred to in detail, ^o. 6 (a pebble-bed) of tliis 

 published section is regarded by Mr. Fisher as the base of the Brackle- 

 sham series ; the upper limit being somevrhere in ]N"o. 19. Descriptions 

 followed of the beds seen at Bracklesham Bay ; the eastern side of Selsea ; 

 at the Mixen Eocks ; at well-sinkings near Bury Cross ; at Stubbington 

 (including the Cerithium-bed at Hillhead, discorered by the author in 

 1856) ; Netley, Bramshaw, Brook, and Hunting Bridge (where H. Keeping 

 has lately found a fossil-bed high in the series), in the New Forest. 

 Indications of the western range of the marine shells of " Bracklesham " 

 age were quoted as occurring at Lychett, near Poole, and as very rare 

 (one Ostrea) near Corfe. 



Bracklesham beds, containing marine forms, seen at Alum Bay, Isle of 

 Wight, and at Highcliff, near Christchurch, were then described in full. 

 The Bracklesham series is regarded by Mr, Fisher as commencing in both 

 these sections a few feet beneath a dark-green clay (part of xSo. 29 of 

 Mr. Prestwich's section of Alum Bay) containing a peculiar variety of 

 Niimmulina j)lanulata and many shells of the Barton Fauna. 



Eemarks were also made on the estuarine condition of the lower 

 Bracklesham beds in their western area; on the probable sources of their 

 materials ; on the successive deepenings of the old sea-bottom, and the 

 formation of the pebble-beds ; and lastly, on the htness of the Brackle- 

 sham and Barton series as a field for research in the history of moUuscan 

 species. 



The paper was illustrated by a series of specimens from the author's 

 collection. 



Specimens of gold in quartz-veins, of gold-dust, and of gold-ingots, 

 from jN^ova Scotia, sent by Mr. Secretary Howe, were exhibited by Pro- 

 fessor Tennant, F.G.S. 



COREESPONDENCE. 



Kortliamjpfon Sands. 



Dear Sie, — The iS"ovember number of your valuable journal contains 

 a paper by Mr. J. H. Macalister, on " The Fossils of ^N'orth Bucks and 

 the adjacent Counties," in which. I believe, reference is made to myself in 

 the following passage, page 481 : — " The identity of the iS^orthampton 

 Sands (formerly classed with the lias) with the Stonefield Slate of Oxford- 

 shire and Gloucestershire, and constituting the lower zone of the Great 

 Oolite;" and in a note it is added, "so classed b}- Dr. Wright, being 

 separated by him from the inferior oolite, which the}' formerly were sup- 

 posed to represent." 



To this statement I have simply to say, that Mr. Macalister is altogether 

 incorrect, as I have nowhere classed the Northampton Sands with the 

 lias, nor made any reference to them. If that gentleman will refer to 

 my memoir on " The PaUvontological and Stratigraphical Eelation of the 

 so-called Sands of the Inferior OoHte" (Quart. Journal of the Geol. Soc. 

 vol. xii. p. 292), for 1856, he will find a full statement of the case, as 

 regards the counties of Gloucester, Somerset, and Dorset, but no reference 

 whatever to Northampton ; and in the preface to my ' Monograph on 

 the Oolitic Echinodermata,' p. ix,, he will find it stated that "in every 



