JURASSIC FAUNA AND FLOUA. 13 
closing of many quarries in Jurassic areas. In places too, the 
slag from iron-furnaces is employed as road-metal. Again, at the 
larger brickyards like those near Peterborough, where machinery 
is extensively used, bricks of better quality and cheaper in price, 
can he made than is the case at many a simll out-of-the-vvay 
brickyard. Consequently many of the latter have been abandoned, 
and more are likely to be. Moreover, owing to social changes, 
comparatively little building is carried on in the villages, com- 
pared with what took place in times gone by. 
There are notes of many open sections, mentioned in John 
Woodward's "Natural History of the Fossils of England," and in 
old topographical works, that show their abundance in regions 
where sections would now be a boon ; but it is probably only 
within the last 30 years, and particularly within the last 15 years, 
that so many pits and quarries have been closed. 
The railways themselves have given some compensation in the 
numerous cuttings, but the majority of these are soon obscured, 
Deep borings have added to and are continually increasing our 
knowledge, but they do not afford those happy hunting grounds 
for fossils, which many a stone-quarry and brickyard have fur- 
nished. It must be remembered, however, that many localities 
regarded as very fossiliferous, owe their celebrity to the energy 
of local collectors. 
Fauna and Flora. 
The organic remains, studied in connexion with the sedimentary 
characters of the rocks, give a clue to the physical conditions that 
characterized the successive periods. 
The fauna and flora of the Jurassic system is, on the whole, 
rich and varied, especially when contrasted with the preceding 
and comparatively barren New Red Rocks; and a study of the 
Lias and Oolites takes us to some of the most famous localities 
for fossils. The west of England appears to be the district most 
favoured by collectors, and places such as Lyme Regis, Weymouth 
and Swanage, Yeovil, Chippenham, StonesfieJd and Cheltenham, 
have attained a greater fame than other fossiliferous regions 
further north in the area to which attention is now directed. 
A general consideration of the fauna bears striking testimony to 
the imperfection of the Geological Record, especially as regards 
the preservation of terrestial forms of life. Mammal*, of which 
the earliest traces in the shape of Microlcstes, are recorded from 
the Rhaetic Beds, have been detected in the Jurassic series in the 
Stonesfield Slate and in the Purbeck Beds. These include 
Marsupials and Insectivores. Cetacean vertebra} have been 
doubtfully recorded from the Kimeridge Clay. 
No traces of Birds have been found in any of the Jurassic 
Rocks of this country * The Dinosaurian Reptiles, of which the 
* Abroad, the Archceopteryx of Solenhofen and the Laopteryx (?) of Wyoming, 
occur in Upper Jurassic Strata. 
