76 ESTHERIA-BED IN NORTH-WEST GLOUCESTERSHIRE. 
the more even distribution of the “ dendritic ” markings, 
by the absence of curvature in the layers of sediment in 
the upper portion of the stratum, and by the non-existence 
of any defined dark band at the base of the markings. The 
associations of the Estherian here, as yet recorded, are 
Naiadita lanceolata — in places abundant — fish scales, 
Schizodits, Astarte (?), Pecten valoniensis^ Darwinula {vide 
Brodie, Fossil Insects^ p. 79, and Professor T. Rupert Jones, 
Quart. Journ, Geol. Soc.^ vol. 1., 1894, p. 163) Protocardium 
Rhceticumj and Plexor ophor us. 
The fragmentary condition of the tests of the marine 
mollusca tend to suggest the conclusion that the habitat of 
the Rhaetic Estherian in this district was a low-lying 
swampy area subject to frequent incursions by the sea, and 
also that the tests of the lamellibranchs were washed into 
the position in which they are now found, some time 
subsequent to the death of the animal which inhabited 
them. 
The Naiadita remains occur in conspicuous layers in a 
rock which is intermediate between the lithic varieties (1) 
and (3), but with this difference, that the bed is greenish- 
grey instead of yellowish. The best preserved specimens of 
Estlieria ininuta var. Brodieana that I have found at 
Garden Cliff occurred intermingled with the plant frag- 
ments. 
In correlating the North-west Gloucestershire sections with 
that at Pylle Hill, the jEs^/icrza-bed, or the late Edward 
Wilson’s bed ^‘1,” affords a remarkably good datum level. 
At Garden Cliff it occurs about 25 feet above the Upper 
Keuper Marls, and is from 3 to 16 inches ^ in thickness, but 
at Pylle Hill the intervening deposit is only 11;| feet. 
^ That portion exhibiting dendritic ” markings seldom exceeds 
3 inches in thickness. 
