carbonaceous matter and sometimes becoming perfectly black and resembling an impure lignite. This portion of the bed contains but few shells, and passes by insensible gradations into the interlaminated sands and clays above.
The middle portion of the marine band is almost wholly made up of oyster-shells, with, a few dwarfed specimens of Corbula, Cyrena (?), and Cardium. Like the upper portion it contains very much carbonaceous matter. I have not obtained from this portion any specimens of Ammonites or Vicarya.
The lowest portion of the marine band to the thickness of 6 or 8 inches is a hard, more or less ferruginous, very shelly limestone of a blue colour, weathering brown at the joints, and containing numerous pebbles or concretions composed of argillaceous limestone. This bed of hard limestone is traversed by some irregular seams of hard blue clay or shale ; it contains comparatively little carbonaceous matter, but yields Ammonites, Vicarya, and other marine shells. The oysters in this portion of the marine band are sometimes large and approach very closely to their typical forms*.
Almost immediately underlying the marine band are the variegated Wealden Clays and Sands, which in Swanage Bay attain probably to a thickness of nearly 2000 feet, and yield, so far as I know, only the remains of freshwater and terrestrial forms of life.
The following fossils have been obtained from the marine bands of Punfield†.
Teeth of Lamna, sp. —Pycnodus, sp.
Ammonites Deshayesii, Leym.
Vicarya pizcuetana, Vilanova, sp. —Lujani, De Verneuil et Collomb. —Pradoi, De Verneuil et De Loriere.
Cerithium Vilanovae, De Verneuil et De Loriere. —Pailleti, De Verneuil et De Loriere. Turritella Tournali, H. Coquand. Pleurotoma Utrillasi, De Verneuil et De Loriere. Fusus (?) neocomiensis, D' Orb. Actaeon Esquerae, De Verneuil et De Loriere. —pradoana, Be Verneuil et Be Loriere. Actaeonella oliviformis, H. Coquand. Trochus Esquerae, De Verneuil et De Loriere. Natica laevigata, Desh., sp. —pradoana, Vilanova. Neritopsis minima, De Verneuil et De Loriere.
Orthostoma Verneuili, Vilanova, sp. Exogyra Boussingaulti, D' Orb. —sinuata, Sow. (dwarfed). Anomia laevigata, Sow. Plicatula asperrima, D' Orb. Perna Rauliniana, Pictet et Roux. Modiola giffreana, Pictet et Roux. Area cymodoce, H. Coquand (young). Arca, sp. Cardium subhillanum, Leym. —impressum, Desh. Astarte, sp. Isocardia nasuta, H. Coquand, —, sp. Leda scaphoides, Pictet et Campiche. Tellina ? gibba, H. Coquand. Corbula striatula, Sow. Pholadomya semicostata, Ag. Pholadidea (borings). Serpula. Numerous small univalves and bivalves, fragmentary and undeterminable.
Much wood and carbonaceous matter.
- Mr. Etheridge is engaged in the preparation of descriptions of those
fossils of the Punfield formation which are new to this country.
† Since the reading of this paper, Mr. C. J. A. Meyer, F.G.S., informs me
