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CO^THIBUTIO^TS TO THE GEOLOGY OE GLOUCESTERSHIRE. 



By the Kev. p. E. Beodie, M.A., E.G.S., &c., kc. 



{Continued from page 233.) 

 As the Lias in this county is a Teiy bad material for economical 

 purposes, it is not often extensively quarried ; and, considering the few 

 available sections, the number and variety of organic remains which 

 have been, from time to time, collected, are really remarkable, and 

 show the prolific nature of the soa of that period. Some localities in 

 that sea, of course, would be richer than others, as is the case in the 

 present day; but, on the wliole, this formation is everywhere marked 

 by a great abundance and diversity of fossils. The Paleontologist often 

 looks with a longing eye at some old quarrj% long since closed, which 

 had been at one time famous for its zoological contents, and speculates 

 upon tb.e wonders which lie concealed beneath his feet; and he restores 

 in thought some ancient monster of the deep, some curiously-formed 

 shell, or some strange plant ; and perhaps, if he had the power, he 

 would dig away, in the hope of possessing some of these treasures 

 which his imagination has conjured up before him. And yet, after all, 

 such speculations are not so imaginative or unreal as they may at first 

 sight appear, for the strange and extraordinary forms of extinct life, 

 which the extended researches of scientific inquirers have brought to 

 light, seem to justify the highest flights of fancy; and none can tell 

 when or where some wonderful relic of the past may be found. This 

 is equally true of the organic contents of each of the different formations 

 which constitute the earth's crust ; but to none of them^ isjit more ap- 

 plicable than to the Lias itself, when, like a later geological period, as I 

 have before remarked, the AVealden, gigantic reptiles (in tlie one case 

 marine and the other terrestrial) were the lords of creation, and the 

 vast size and ferocious habits of the predaceous species must have made 

 them the scourge and terror of the smaller creatures with which they 

 were associated. Of late years, many interesting discoveries of this 

 nature have been made; and, although railway excavations are now of 

 rare occurrence, we may still anticipate fresh additions to our knowledge, 

 and even the smallest quarry may yield some interesting novelty to the 

 hammer of the patient and persevering collector. iSTow, the facts which 

 we shall have to note in the history of the lower division of the Lias 



