380 
THE GEOLOGIST. 
of ammonites, beleranites, myacites, and limse, ostrese, monotidae, modiolae and 
brachiopoda, toiled away at the rock; and the click, click of the hammer 
resounded through the coppice. 
Meanwhile, many of the older hands, shutting their eyes to the blandish- 
ments of the marlstone, push upward and attack the " Fish Bed" of the Upper 
Lias, which they well know contains the choicest specimens of fish, crustacean, 
and insect, nay, even of reptilian remains, for this is the " Saurian Zone." 
Leptolepis concentricus was now found by Mr. Norman ; a fine Fachycorm'.s 
by Mr. Holland, and a series of vertebrae of a species of Tdhyosmirus by Mr. 
Moore. As a " Saurian Zone," it is well known all through Europe, since 
nothing can be more constant and persistent than the course of the Upper Lias 
formation. Indeed, nowhere can Geology point to a truer or more extended 
horizon. Under the Shales we detect the Leptaena Bed, a band of but few 
inches in thickness yet embracing numerous tiny shells, mostly brachiopods, 
but some Nuculae, &c. Under and over the Fish Bed are shales remarkable 
for their perfect lamination ; splitting them open with a clasp knife Ave have 
under our eye, a table of contents, curious to note, and deeply instructive. 
Ripple-marked furrows, sea-weed, ever and anon disposed in places only 
whither the eddying of the current had drifted it, just as we may see any day 
on the strands of our own sea-girt isle. To feed on these alga pastures are 
the crustaceans) prawn-like in form and size, in no contemptible number ; and, 
as a final exemplification of the cyclical law of life, here lurk the rapacious 
fish and predaceous cephalopod, the armed cuttle and belemnite, with other 
such flesh-eaters, allured by the tempting bait. A fish that marvellously re- 
sembles many Liassic forms is the capelin {3IalIotus villosos) of our breakfast 
tables, alike palatable to us as to the stunted Esquimaux or Greenlander.* 
So fossiliferous and prolific are these shales and nodules, that one could 
never tire of working at them, and when the company retired to Dumbleton 
House there was still a treat in store ; they were delighted with the unrivalled 
collection made by Miss Holland from the quarries adjacen;^, — a series of 
Liassic forms of rare perfection and value, arranged, too, with that peculiar 
neatness and accuracy that ladies alone possess. This exquisite suite of fish- 
bed fossils was the theme of admiration. It comprised good reptilian remains, 
fish, Crustacea and insects, the latter of transcendent delicacy. 
We were much struck with a collection made by Mr. Holland at Mount 
Lebanus, in Syria. Many of the fossils were of the Jurassic caste, and almost 
looked like intimate acquaintances. 
The naturalists now assembled in the library included some distinguished 
men, 'besides the president of the " Cotteswold," Captain Guise, were Mr. S. P. 
Woodward, of the British Museum, the Hev. W. S. Symonds, President of the 
Malven Club. Charles Moore, of Bath, w^ho so surprised the " savants" of the 
British Association some time since by his foretelling what organism each fish- 
bed nodule contained, ere, with a blow from his hammer, he laid open 
before his astonished auditory the fossil he had predicted as its nucleus. 
Drs. Wright, Beach, Bird and Warner, the Revs. Norwood, Atwood, Hep- 
worth, Major Barnand, Messrs, Dent, of Sudeley, Bowley, Copeland and 
Walker, 
Mr. Holland had provided a sumptuous repast for his brother naturalists, of 
which about twenty-eight gentle q) en partook. The after dinner the reading 
of papers took place after the usual preliminary toasts. One of considerable 
interest was by the Rev. W. S. Symonds, E.G.S, on the Drifts of the Severn, 
Av on, Wye aiid Usk, going well into the physical geology of the district, and 
* Professor Owen states that Mallotus villosm is found in clay nodules of unknowTi age in 
Greenland. 
