30 
and the fragments are less sharp. Bits of the lower chalk also occur and 
the same red siliceous sand as before. Besides all these there are found a 
large number of hard quartzose pebbles of that kind so well known to 
every worker in new red sandstone districts such as that round Birming- 
ham. Their weight varies from about lOlbs downwards, but a few occur, 
rounded like the rest, but at least ten times as large. Flint fossils from 
the upper chalk might be expected here but I have never seen any. 
Probably they are so ground down as to be unrecognizable, and the gravel 
seems to contain no organic remains of its own. I have heard that large 
fossil bones have been met with in this quarry but have not been able to find 
any sufficient authority for the assertion. It is not improbable, and further 
enquiry might be more successful. The level of this gravel above the river 
does not probably exceed an estimated height of about 80 feet. 
At a short distance below this is found almost everywhere along the valley, 
a third, which may be termed the lower gravel. This again, may be at once 
distinguished from both the others : it is made up of pebbles, generally 
small, of flint, quartzose stone, lower chalk, sandstone, and other materials, 
with water- worn shells in large quantity from various formations. This 
last component always seems to mark it out from either of the others. 
The fragments are not easily recognized but the following I have been 
able to identify with tolerable certainty : 
Ostrea deltoidea. — Oxford clay. 
gregarea. — Coral Eag. 
Gryphaea globosa. — Lower chalk. 
conica. „ „ 
Belemnites. — Lias, &c. 
In digging out the ground for the foundation of a new County Lunatic 
Asylum, near Wallingford, a good opportunity was afforded of examining 
the gravel. The surface soil, 5 feet thick, was first passed through and 
next 4 feet of yellow sand full of comminuted shell too small to be 
recognized but seeming to belong to Paludina, Cyclas, and perhaps 
Lymnaea. The underlying gravel was removed to the depth of 3 feet, and 
the foundations then laid. I could not ascertain the exact thickness but 
the well, 40 feet deep, was sunk quite through it, and some small depth 
into the lower chalk or chalk marl below. Abundance of water lies at 
the base of the porous gravel, the well yielding about 2000 gallons an hour. 
At a short distance from the spot a trial pit was sunk and in the course 
of the work a fragment of bone was thrown out consisting apparently of 
the end of a tarsus of a species of Bos. I also found another small piece 
