On the Lower Lias or Lias-Conglomerate of a part of Glamorganshire

O n the 6th December, 1865, a paper was read before the Society, by Mr. E. B. Tawney, “On the Western Limits of the Rhætic Beds in South Wales, and on the position of the ‘Sutton Stone’”*. The chief object of the above communication was (to quote the author's own words), “to discuss the ‘Sutton Stone’ as to its stratigraphical, lithological, and palæontological relations; to show from organic remains that its affinities were with the Triassic formation, and not with the Lias, as commonly supposed, and then to claim it as Rhætic, and in so doing to extend, for the first time in England, the range of Ammonites down into the Rhætic series” (p. 70). In order to render his views still more intelligible, the author reiterates (at p. 72 of his Memoir), “These beds I now claim as Rhætic, and would unquestionably separate from the Lias. As developed on the coast, they are between 80 and 90 feet in thickness: to the lower half of this the term ‘Sutton Series’ may apply; and for the upper half I propose the name of ‘Southerndown Series,’ as they are best seen in the fine cliff-exposure under the hamlet of Southerndown.” In further elucidation of the views already expressed, the author gives two sections at p. 75—one a vertical section representing, in the lower part, 39 feet of “Sutton Series” overlain by a thickness of 50 feet 9 inches “Southerndown Series,” which, again, is surmounted by acknowledged Lias, represented by the zone of