86Q 
COITTRIBUTIONS TO THE GEOLOGY OE GLOUCESTERSHIRE. 
By the Rev. P. B. Brobie, M.A., E.G.S., Sec, &c. 
(Continued from pige. 233.) 
As the Lias in this county is a very 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, arc really remarkable, and 
show the prolific nature of the sea of that period. Some localities in 
that soa, of course, would be richer than others, as is the case in the 
present day ; but, on the whole, this formation is everywhere marked 
by a great abundance and diversity of fossils. The Paleontologist often 
looks with a longing eye at some old quarry, long since closed, which 
liad been at one time famous for its zoological contents, and speculates 
upon the 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 
Bight 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. Tiiis 
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 Wealden, gigantic reptiles (in the one case 
marine and the other terrestrial) were the lords of creation, and the 
vast size and ferocious habits of the predaeeous 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 tlie 
hammer of the patient and persevering collector. jSTow, the facts which 
we shall have to note in the history of the lower division of tlie Lias 
