60 
GEOLOGICAL SECTION. 
Friday, June 29. — The members of this Section made their second 
walk of the Season, and examined the lower lias quarries of Bedminster 
Down, chiefly for the purpose of correlating their beds and fossils, the 
position of the Cotham Marble or landscape stone being taken in each 
case as a starting point. 
The Quarries on tn e Wells road were the first visited, and then 
successively those in the direction of Bristol as far as the junction of the 
Lias with the new red marls, which is well seen by the road side. 
Among the fossils collected were two species of Cypridse, probably o f 
the genus Candona, which were found in such numbers as to completely 
cover the surface of a bed of White lias. With these were associated 
specimens of Estheria minuta, another genus of bivalve Entomostraca, and 
which in one of the quarries near the reservoir was found in good preser- 
vation, with the valves united, and showing the characteristic markings. 
In the bank at the edge of the road leading to Bedminster Down, Mr. 
Stoddart pointed out a very remarkable argillaceous limestone, contain- 
ing abundance of a fresh water plant (Naiadites petiolata) in such a good 
state of preservation that the monocotyledonous venation of the leaves 
was easily discernable with a lens. In the same bed was also noticed the 
Estheria before mentioned, and a few elytra of beetles. 
A short distance above this, Mr. Pass discovered some very perfect 
teeth of the Sauricthys Apicalis, a fish characteristic of the lowest Lias 
beds. With them were scales of Dapedius and Pholidophorus. Their 
appearance here was worthy of note, because their position was rather 
higher in the Liassic series, than in the corresponding beds of Aust and 
Garden Cliff. The similarity of the Bedminster beds to those at Garden 
Cliff, is still greater from the occurrence of the well known Monotis 
decussata, and Myacites musculoides. 
In a Quarry near the Limekiln, the dark coloured schists were seen to 
be covered with spines and broken tests of an Echinus (a species of Hemi- 
pedina). The members also brought away several examples of Lima, 
especially L. punctata, Astarte, some casts of a gasteropod resembling 
Phasianella and many others. 
The Section thus spent two or three hours in a highly instructive study 
of the Bedminster strata, which was rendered most interesting and useful 
by the explanation of the President, Mr. Wm. Sanders. 
