BRODIE — GEOLOGY OF GLOUCESTERSHIRE, 85 
presence or in their distinctive characters southwards, often being 
inseparable, the term " Eagstone " is perhaps a better one for the whole 
set, the thickness of which would amount to 38 feet. The " Gryphito 
grit " is a coarse calcareous grit, readily distinguished by the abundance 
of Gryphasa Buckmanni and G. Cymbium, whence its name. Masses 
of these shells are piled in heaps, and cannot fail to attract the 
attention of the geologist, who does not, if he is a careful observer, 
allow any fact, however apparently trifling, to escape him ; as it 
may help him to read the history of the past, and perhaps may prove 
to be one of the clues to a correct comprehension of some impor- 
tant fact. Among the numerous fossils associated with these 
gryphites are occasionally some very large Ammonites, with Ostrea 
Marshii, Pholadomya, and other fossils, mostly in the form of 
casts ; but at Rodborough Hill, facing Stroud, though much reduced in 
thickness, the grit is loaded with well-preserved testacea. Palatal teeth 
of fishes (Acrodus) are occasionally met with there, though scarcely a 
trace of anything of this kind has been detected in any other of the 
inferior subdivisions, excepting in the bone-bed at the base of the 
series at Crickley Hill. As the " Trigonia grit " is not well developed at 
LeckhamptoD, and the higher beds are not seen there at all, we 
must seek them elsewhere, in a southern or north-easterly direction. 
Thus, at a roadside cutting, called Cold Comfort, five miles south-east 
of Cheltenham, there is a thin layer of clay and stone dividing the 
" Gryphite grit " from the " Trigonia grit," abounding in univalve and 
bivalve shells, which are often entire : it is characterized by the large 
Perna mytiloides. 
Near Naunton and Stowe-on-thc-Wold, there is a rough white 
oolitic stone, forming the highest zone of the Inferior Oolite, loaded 
with specimens of Clypeus Plotii and Nucleolites cluuicularis, with Lima 
gibbosa and other shells. On the Stow road, at Hampden Farm, 
beyond Andoversford, the " Trigonia grit " is satisfactorily exhibited, 
and consists of a coarse, ragged limestone almost made up of Trigonia 
costata, T. clavellata, Terebratula globata, &c. At Rodborough Hill 
it is about eight feet thick, and in that district occurs as a hard lime- 
stone, more or less sandy or argillaceous, and almost entirely made up of 
shells. In this part of the series a very pretty shell, Rhynchonella 
spinosa, is of frequent occurrence ; the test is usually retained, and even 
the long slender spines may now and then be detected. As this fossil 
