LOWER LIAS: SUTTON AND SOUTHERNDOWN FOSSILS. Ill 
existed at the time. It is therefore possible that the peculiar 
character of the Sutton Stone may have been due in part to the 
waste of coral-beds : the calcareous mud being mixed with the 
debris of corals. Higher up in the series, where clay-beds come in, 
we lose the coral-fauna. The Southerndown Beds on the coast 
contain but few corals, and the two species recorded, are the same 
as species found in the Sutton Beds.* 
The development of coral-life seems to have been local, so that 
we cannot attempt definite correlations, based on the occurrence 
of the many species, with beds in other parts of this country, for 
nowhere else in the basement" beds of the Lower Lias have these 
organic remains been found in such abundance. Only one species 
(Thecosmilia rugosd) has been recorded from both White Lias 
and Sutton Stone. 
The evidence of the Ammonites is important. Moore indeed 
included A. angulatus in his list of Sutton Stone fossils, but in 
his section of the strata he notes the occurrence of this species on 
top of this stone at least 1 8 feet 3 inches from its base ;t 
and it is necessary to bear in mind the varying thickness of the 
beds where they rest in the hollows of the Carboniferous Lime- 
stone. Of the two species recorded from the Sutton Series by 
Tawney, the one named A. suttonensis (a form which, according 
to Prof. Tatej, is allied to A. Johnstoni) was found about 20 feet 
above the base of the series, both at Dunraven and at the Sutton 
quarries ; while the fragment named A. dunravenensis was found 
about 30 feet above the base of the Sutton Series at Dunraven. We 
have therefore no actual record of the discovery of an Ammonite in 
the main mass of the Sutton Stone itself. In many places, however, 
Ammonites planorbis, which characterizes the lowest zone of the 
Lias, is not found in the bottom-beds ; and these have in places 
been separated under the name of Ostrea Beds, being conspicuous 
for the prevalence of Ostrea liassica. 
The above-mentioned Ammonites, however, evidently occur in 
the beds which shade off from the white Sutton Stone and 
conglomerate into the bluish grey Southerndown series, and thus 
confirm the view that the Sutton and Southerndown Beds 
constitute one palseontological series. 
The bed with Gasteropods, that occurs at the base of the 
ordinary beds of Lias at Dunraven, may correspond with that 
marked as the top of the Southerndown Beds under Southern - 
down. There are, however, at least three distinct bands of lime- 
stone in the Southerndown Series that yield Gasteropods. The 
more prominent bed, about 1 foot thick, occurs about 18 inches 
below the highest conglomeratic bed (top of Southerndown 
Series) under Southerndown. It is a greyish limestone containing 
conglomeratic seams, and is well seen in ledges on the foreshore, 
becoming darker and rougher in appearance away from the 
cliffs. It has been planed off at somewhat different levels and 
* See Duncan, Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc., vol. xxii. p. 15. 
} Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc., vol. xxiii. pp. 526, 530; see also notes by Sir W. V. 
Guise, Proc. Cottesw . Club, vol. iv. p. 109 ; and Ibid., p. 84. 
J Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc., vol. xxiii. p. 309. 
