COUNCIL FOR 1879 . 
11 
Brockenhiirst, in the New Forest. The stratigraphical position 
of these beds is somewhat doubtful; the fossils have Oligocene 
affinities. 
5. The next two cases contain a large series of the beautiful 
Fossils of the Bracklesham Beds, chiefly from Stubbingtoii, 
Bramshaw, and Brooke, in Hampshire, and 248 specimens of 
impressions of the leaves of Plants from the Lower Bagshot 
Beds of Alum Bay, in the Isle of Wight. 
The upper shelves of these cases will be occupied by the fine 
collection of Shells from the MiddJe Eocene Beds of the Paris 
Basin, contemporaneous with those of Bracklesham, presented 
by Lady Mimchison. 
The two cases which follow are filled with the Fossils of the 
London Clay, consisting of bones of Mammalia, lleptiles, and 
Fishes, shells of Mollusca, and remains of Crustacea, from both 
the London and Hampshire Basins, to which will shortly be 
added a series of Fruits and other Plant Pemains from Sheppey. 
The last case contains Mollusca from the Oldhaven Beds near 
the Peculvers, in Kent; Mollusca and Plants from the fluvio- 
marine strata of Woolwich and Heading, and Marine Shells 
of the Thanet Sands from Pegwell Bay and Herne Bay. These 
are the lowest Tertiary Deposits of the British Islands. 
Altogether upwards of 42,000 specimens have been arranged 
in their biological and stratigraphical order, of which 41,000 
have been mounted on tablets, and 3,000—namely, the Shells 
of the recent British Mollusca and those of the Coralline and 
Bed Crags of Norfolk and Suffolk—have been specifically 
identified and distinguished by labels specially printed for the 
Museum. This has been a work requiring so much labour and 
time that it has been determined to proceed with the remainder 
of the collection in a less detailed manner, to mount and classify 
the specimens genericalljq and place them in their stratigraphical 
position, reserving the specific determination and labelling until 
the general arrangement shall be completed. 
During the past year numerous additions have been made to 
the Antiquarian department. Two fragmentary inscriptions 
have been acquired. One, discovered during the excavations 
for the recent Exhibition, is a scanty portion of a tablet 
