9 
NOTE ON THE SPEETON CLAY OF YORKSHIRE. 
By John Leckenby, Esq., of Scarborough. 
The lowest beds of Speeton Clay in overlying contact with any inferior 
stratum have never been found in Filey Bay, but a little to the south 
of a point where it is first exposed Lias " scars " exist with Ammonites 
communis and A. Walcotti in situ, showing great upheaval or disturb- 
ance, or else great unconformability here. 
1. The lowest known beds of Speeton Clay, so called, consist of blue 
clay, with seams of septarian nodules. In one of these seams, in beds 
of a black claystone, specimens of Ammmites biplex three to four inches 
in diameter are not unfrequent. This is the only fossil found in this 
bed. 
2. Above this is a band of strong, slaty, brown clay, very ligneous 
and peaty, containing remains of fishes only. Here was found the 
unique Palaeoniscus Egertoni, now in the possession of the Earl of 
Enniskillen. Thickness 12 feet. 
3. Next we have a black shaly clay, containing large nodules like 
the cement-stones, but not used as such. These nodules contain a 
beautiful Ammonite, named by Mr. Bean A. evalidus, but no other 
MoUusca 20 feet. 
4. Another band of strong clay, containing compressed Ammonites 
and other shells, all too imperfect for discrimination. This band is 
traversed at intervals by seams of septarian nodules. . . .50 feet. 
5. A thin seam of impure clay, with fragments of Ammonites and 
Belemnites 1 foot. 
6. A stratum of dark-brown shaly clay, containing imperfect, com- 
pressed, bivalve shells, and a seam of coprolitic nodules. . . 5 feet. 
7. Compact light-grey argillaceous stone, destitute of fossils ; 
forming a remarkable line of demarcation between the beds below and 
those succeeding 3 feet. 
8. Tough and almost pm-e clay, containing many of the characteristic 
fossils of the Speeton Clay as under 8 feet. 
