370 
THE GEOLOGIST. 
"will confirm the truth of this assertion, and at the same time afford 
encouragement to the beginner to go on his way rejoicing, while he 
scrambles over rugged rocks, and finds himself lost for awhile amidst 
the changes and contortions which the strata in mountainous regions so 
frequently undergo. This, we need not say, does not apply to the Lias ; for 
except in the Alps and a few other similar places abroad, this formation 
has undergone but little disturbance ; and that portion of it in Glou- 
cestershire now to be described scarcely rises into hills, and has been 
subject to little or no alteration in its internal structure since its original 
deposition. 
"We have already described the Upper Lias, the marlstone, and the 
beds more immediately below; and we have seen that they each contain 
a certain number of peculiar fossils, marlciug distinct stages of life ; 
and the same remark applies with equal force to the lower and succeed- 
ing divisions. Owing unfortunately to the paucity of sections, many 
of these are very rarely exposed in the district — never in one consecutive 
section — and are chiefly to be observed in the few clay-pits where 
bricks are made around the town of Cheltenham. At the foot of 
Battledown Hill, there is a stratum of yellow clay, about four feet 
thick, enclosing ferruginous nodules, in which a variety of shells have 
been met with, viz., Belemnites elongatus, Trochus imhricatus, a species 
of Gervillia, Cardinia attenuata, ModioJa cuneata, Spirifer 2>unctatus, 
Area gracilis, A. Bticlcani, A. truncata, Ai icula inequivalvis, and some 
others, a portion of which are not recognized elsewhere. Unfortunately 
the pit is now only worked in the lower clays, so that the more peculiar 
fossils of the yellow clay cannot be obtained. The former are best 
exposed in a brick pit on the left hand, nearer Cheltenham, and these 
laminated strata of blue clay are the commencement of the Lower Lias 
Shale. It is characterised by Ammonites Henleiji, A. Conyleari, A. 
crenata, and others, with Perna ventricosa. Below this, the four fol- 
lowing beds occur, which are each distinguished by the prevalence of 
certain fossils, met with in greater or less abundance. Thus, according 
to Professor Euckman, we have the " Belemnite-bed," twelve feet 
thick, which is succeeded by another yellowish clay, charged with 
many species of Ammonites, and not exceeding three feet in thick- 
ness; then strata of dark shale, ten feet thick, marked by a great 
abundance of a peculiar shell, the Hippopodiim^' ponderosum, many 
'* So called from its resemblance to a horse's hoof. It appears to be allied to 
Cypricardia or Cavdita, and belongs to the same family as Cardinia, anotlicr 
abundant and still more characteristic Liassic form. — P. 15. B. 
