256 
ELEMENTS OE GEOLOGY. 
Fig. ITS. 
Fig. 1T9. 
met with in Headon 
A 
4 
Hill, in the same beds. 
At Sconce, in the Isle 
of Wight, it occurs in 
the Bembridge series, 
and affords a rare ex¬ 
Lymnea caudata, Edw. 
Cerithium co7icavum, Sow. 
ample of an Eocene fos¬ 
sil of a species still liv¬ 
ing, though, as usual 
in such cases, having^ 
Headon series. 
Headon series. 
no local connection 
with the actual geographical range of the species. The lower 
and middle portion of the Headon series is also met with in 
Hordwell Cliff (or Hordle, as it is often spelt), near Lyming- 
ton, Hants. Among the shells which abound in this cliff are 
Paludina lenta and various species of Lymnea^ Planorhis^ 
'Melania^ Cyclas^ TInio^ Potamomya^ Preissena^ etc. 
Among the chelonians we find a species of Phiys^ and no 
less than six species of Trionyx ; among the saurians an al¬ 
ligator and a crocodile ; among the ophidians two species of 
land-snakes {Paleryx^ Owen) ; and among the fish Sir P. Eger- 
ton and Mr. Wood have found the jaws, teeth, and hard shin¬ 
ing scales of the genus Lepidosteus^ or bony pike of the Amer¬ 
ican rivers. This same genus of fresh-water ganoids has also 
been met with in the Hempstead beds in the Isle of Wight. 
The bones of several birds have been obtained from Hord¬ 
well, and the remains of quadrupeds of the genera Palceothe- 
rium [P, minus) ^Anoplotherium^Anthracotherium^Pichodon^ 
Pichohune^ Spalacodon^ and Hycenodon, The latter offers, I 
believe, the oldest known example of a true carnivorous ani¬ 
mal in the series of British fossils, although I attach very 
little theoretical importance to the fact, because herbivorous 
species are those most easily met with in a fossil state in all 
save cavern deposits. In another point of view, however, 
this fauna deserves notice. Its geological position is consid¬ 
erably low^er than that of the Bembridge or Montmartre 
beds, from which it differs almost as much in species as it 
does from the still more ancient fauna of the Lower Eocene 
beds to be mentioned in the sequel. It therefore teaches us 
what a grand succession of distinct assemblages of mamma¬ 
lia flourished on the earth during the Eocene period. 
Many of the marine shells of the brackish-water beds of 
the above series, both in the Isle of Wight and Hordwell 
Clifi*, are common to the underlying Barton Clay: and, on 
the other hand, there are some fresh-water shells, such as Cy- 
rena obovata^ which are common to the Bembridge beds, not- 
