NOTES AI^D QUERIES. 
117 
are accompanied by the catkins of hazel, and the leaves of waterflags and 
other plants, which show that they could not have been transported far 
from the place in which they grew. The thickness of the peat-bed is from 
four to five feet, and it is some feet below the level of high-water mark, 
covered by brick- earth, of the same character as that still deposited by the 
Severn, to the depth of ten or twelve feet, indicating that it must have 
been submerged to a sufficient depth for this accumulation to have been 
formed upon it, and subsequently uplifted to its present position. The 
same deposit is found on the opposite bank of the river, in the parish of 
I Awre, and, as we are informed, on Walmer Common, in the parish of 
Westbury-on- Severn, at Whitminster, and in other places near Gloucester, 
from which its extent may be inferred. We are not aware that these facts 
have been previously noticed by other writers. 
" The trees, when fairly uncovered in excavation, occur in great numbers, 
and very large ' stag horns ' were found amongst them, some of which are 
said to have been taken to Berkeley Castle. 
" An entire skull of the Bos primigenius was found in the Severn, not 
j very far from Sharpness Point, near the spot where the fresh water of the 
I Royal Drough, on the bank-cuttings of which these trees are now best 
seen, and which runs in places through the peat-bed, still keeping open a 
channel through the sands." 
Restoration of Pteraspis. — Dear Sir, — In the May of last year I 
addressed a brief note to you, partly concerning the restoration of the 
test of Pteraspis, and which has been several times discussed by other 
correspondents and myself in the pages of your valuable magazine. Since 
then I have got from our Scottish rocks various additional fragments of 
Pteraspis, and a nearly complete specimen ; and as it seems to cast light 
on some points already mooted and made matter of controversy, I trust 
you will allow it to be figured along with this communication. 
I may say that I have both the specimen and its cast in the stone, and 
have attempted the outline of the test according to actual measurement. 
I It will be observed by your readers, who take the trouble of looking back 
I to previous numbers of (he ' Geologist,' that this outline-figure closely re- 
sembles that contributed by Mr. Powrie to your February number of 1863. 
The specimen now before us differs from that of Mr. Powrie in size, although 
akin to each other in the relative proportions of their component parts. 
They differ however considerably in two other features which I am about 
to notice. First, the terminal edge on either side of the central prolonga- 
tion or spine is not continuous in this new specimen, but is broken into 
segments ; and, secondl3% there is evidence of a protuberance, or it may 
be perforation (a, a), which I have not observed figured in any of the pre- 
vious diagrammatical restorations of Pteraspis. I cannot certainly deter- 
mine from my specimen whether it is perforation or protuberance, although 
I incline to think the former. I have no doubt however of what have been 
called the eye-orbits {h, b) being perforations, as the bony substance is ex- 
ceedingly well preserved at that part of the test in the specimen before 
me, and the matrix is seen piercing the distinctly-defined orbital space. It 
has been thought by some that these anterior perforations are the nostrils, 
and if so, a conjecture may be hazarded that these posterior perforations 
are the eye-holes; but they may have served some other end in the eco- 
nomy of the organization of this curious old-world fish. This specimen 
exhibits very beautifully the characteristic internal structure of the plates 
as so well described by Professor Huxley. When looked at through a 
glass of feeble magnifying power, nothing can exceed the beauty of the ex- 
