BRODIE — GEOLOGY OV GLOUCESTERSHIRE. 
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specimens of which may still bo found on the spoil-banks of the 
Midland llailwaj-, about a mile from the station, on the way to 
Gloucester. The fourth band is designated the " Cardiuia-bed." This 
shell (Cardinia), a very characteristic genus in the Lias, was formerly 
confounded with Utiw; and to this division the large C. Listen 
appears to be confined. All the above may be seen in the several 
brick-pits around Cheltenham, and in the railway cuttings. The last 
bed also appears in some brick-pits at Cleeve. Univalves are nowhere 
very numerous ; but a fine species of Phiirotomaria (P. Anglica, ) is, in 
places, not unfrequent ; and sometimes groups of minute univalves also 
occur. Ammonites and Belemnites are generally very abundant, and a 
beautiful species of ITautilus, (iV. striatus,) besides three species of 
Gryphma, the well-known G. incunci being the most frequent. Some 
small Cidarides have been discovered, and an Astacus, tolerably perfect, 
with remains of Pentacrinites, and a large specimen of Sejna, with the 
enclosed ink-bag. 
It is only in a few sections, here and there, that these argillaceous 
bands can be traced ; but the order of succession has been carefully 
determined, as well as their organic contents. In some of the ramifying 
valleys between the hills round Cheltenham patches of Lower Lias may 
be observed, but the Vale of Gloucester, and the slopes leading to it, are 
undoubtedly the best places for studying the lower portion of this 
deposit. The prevailing fossils are marine shells, and but rarely traces 
of fish or saurians. Indeed, very few fish have been discovered in this 
neighbourhood, which, in this respect, presents a striking contrast to 
the equivalent beds at Lyme, in Dorsetshire, where layers of shale arc 
literally made up of entire and broken specimens of that class. Eelow 
these clays we have a succession of rubbly, white, and compact blue 
limestones, alternating with dark shales, which are, more or less, 
fossiliferous, and which are well marked by a very large species of 
Plagiostoma, (P. (jiganteum.) Many fine specimens were formerly to be 
procured from a quarry at Pifi's Elm, between Cheltenham and 
Tewkesbury. Associated with them are numerous shells of Cardinia 
oralis, Astarte lurida, and Terehratula rimosa. Whenever stone is 
wanted in the plains of Gloucester, this limestone series""'' is exposed ; 
" Tliis division is Tvell displayed at Fretlienie Cliff, ncarNewnhatn (a station on 
the Great Western Railway between Gloucester and Chepstow) ; and the student 
should by all means go there, as it affords a better and thicker section than can 
