316 
THE GEOLOGIST. 
could only be extracted wiili difficulty. In anotiier part of the section he was 
fortimatc enough to find a deposit consisting of a coarse friable sand, containing 
similar remains. In order tliat this might receive a more careful examination 
than coidd be given to it on the spot, the whole of it, weighing about three 
tous, was carted away to the residence of the author, at 15ath, a distance of 
twenty miles, wliich was then passed under his observation with the following 
results : 
The fish-remaius, which were the most ab\indant, were first noticed. Some 
idea might be formed of their nun\b(!rs when he stated that of the genus 
Aerodus alone, including two species, lie had extracted forty-five thousand 
teeth from the three cubic yards under notice, and that they were even more 
numerous than there numbers indicated, since he rejected all but the most per- 
fect examples. Teeth of several species of Sauricflii/s were also abundant, and 
next to them teeth of Bybodm, with occasional Spines of the latter genus. 
Teeth and scales of Lepidofut:, and scales of Gyrolepis were also numerous, as 
also were teeth showing the presence of several other genera of fishes. With 
the above were found a number of curious bodies, each of which was sur- 
mounted by a depressed enamelled thorn-like spine, or tooth, in some cases 
with points as sharp as tliat of a coarse needle ; these the author supposed to 
be spinous scales belonging to several new species of fish allied to the Squa- 
loraiii, and that to the same genus were to be referred a number of minute 
hair-like spines, with flattened fluted sides, found in tlie same deposit. There 
were also present specimens hitherto supposed to be teeth, and for wluch 
Agassiz had created the genus Ctenoptyclduit, but which the author was rather 
disposed to consider, like those previously referred to, to be the outer scales of 
a fish allied to tlie Squuloraia . It was remarked that as the drift must have 
been transported from some distance, delicate organisms could scarcely be ex- 
pected, but, notwithstanding, it contained some most minute fish-jaws and 
palates, of which the author had, perfect or otherwise, one hundred and thirty 
examples. These were from the eiglith to a quarter of an inch in length, and 
within this small compass some specimens possessed from thirty to forty teeth. 
In one palate he had reckoned as many as seventy-four in position, and there 
were spaces from which sixteen more had disappeared, so that in this tiny 
specimen there had been ninety teeth. 
Of the order Reptilia there were probably eight or nine genera, consisting of 
detached teeth, scutes, vertebra?, ritjs, and articulated bones. Amongst these 
he had found the flat crushing teeth of Placodus, a discovery of interest, for 
hitherto this reptile had only been found in the Muschelkalk of Germany, a 
zone of rocks hitherto considered wanting in this country, but which in its 
fauna was represented by the above reptile. 
But by far the most important remains in this deposit were indications of 
the existence of Triassic mammalia. Two little teeth of the Microlestes had 
some years before been discovered in Germany, and were the only traces of this 
high order in beds older than the Stonesfield Slate. The author's miimte re- 
searches had brought to light fifteen molar teeth, either identical with, or 
]iearly allied to, the Microlestes, and also five incisor teeth, evidently belonging 
to more than one species. A very smaU double-fanged tooth, not unlike the 
oolitic Spidacotherium, proved the presence of anotiier genus, and a fragment of 
a tooth, consisting of a single fang, with a small part of the crown attached, a 
third genus, larger in size than the Microlestes. Three vertebrae belonging to 
an animal smaller than any existing mammal had also been found. The author 
inferred that if twenty-five teeth and vertebra;, belonging to three or four 
genera of mammalia, were to be found within the space occupied by tlu'ce 
cubic yards of earth, that portion of the globe which was then dry land, and 
whence the material was in part derived, was probably inhabited at that 
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