118 
Mr. J. Lycett on the Fossil Conchology 
is well-adapted for pasturage and orchards, which together with 
a good supply of water derived from the superincumbent oolite, 
has made it in populous districts the chosen seat of man^s habi- 
tation ; accordingly its course may be traced by a belt or terrace, 
more or less wide, of houses and gardens encircling the hill- 
sides. Landslips from such a yielding deposit, as might be 
expected, are frequent, and thereby render the barren slope of 
the inferior oolite fertile : a coating of its marls sometimes 
extends even down to the lias. The numerical proportion of 
species obtained by me from the Minchinhampton Great Oolite 
are in number as follows : — 
Bivalves 164, Univalves 141, Badiaria 13, Cephalopoda 9. Of 
the latter 6 are Ammonites ; these are so scarce, that 50 speci- 
mens probably exceed the entire number. Of Nautili there are 
two species, one of which has furnished only three specimens, 
and the other is far from numerous. The Belemnites have only 
one species, small and likewise scarce. 
Of the 141 Univalves 45 pertain to carnivorous genera, ex- 
clusive of 8 species of Phasianellaj the living shells of which are 
now known to be both carnivorous and phytophagous. These 
genera are, Nerincea 13 species, Cerithium 5, Mur ex 6, Bucci- 
num 2 ; a new group of large shells belonging to the Muricida, 
to which as yet no generic appellation has been given, 4 species ; 
Pleurotoma 1 ; Hippocrenes, a group of winged shells differing 
from the Bostellarice of the recent period, 10 species ; Fusus, or 
a group at least belonging to the Fusince, 4 species. 
This extreme paucity of the Cephalopoda, taken in connexion 
with the occurrence of numerous genera and species of carni- 
vorous univalves, is a remarkable circumstance. We know that 
previously throughout the lias and inferior oolite the Cepha- 
lopods reigned supreme amongst the molluscous tribes. Subse- 
quently also the Oxford clay and Portland oolite contained 
them in nearly equal profusion. With these facts before us, 
the inquiry naturally follows, — Were there any peculiar circum- 
stances connected with the mineral character of the deposit at 
the locality in question, and what was the probable depth of the 
sea over the shelly beds ; since we find here zoophagous tribes 
differing from those of warm seas at the present time not very 
materially either in number or in their generic affinities ? First, 
with regard to the nature of the deposit, or at least the more 
shelly portions of it : — In the planking and Weatherstone beds 
we find heaps of broken shells piled diagonally, the bivalves 
rarely having both valves in apposition ; with these are frag- 
ments of wood, crabs^ claws, joints of Apiocrinite and Pentacri- 
nite, ossicula of Ophiura, palates and teeth of fishes, small boul- 
dercd fragments of Madrepores, and nodules of rock apparently 
