Page:The New Forest - its history and its scenery.djvu/264

Rh a loamy sand, measuring 8 feet, and then came upon 19 inches of gravel, where at the base stretched the half fossilized trunk of an oak, and a thick drift of leaves mixed with black peaty matter, the remains of some primæval forest. Three feet of light-coloured clay, unfossiliferous, succeeded; and then came the Corbula Bed, with its myriads of Corbula pisum, massed together, nearly all pierced by their enemies, the Murices. Stiff light-coloured clay, measuring 18 inches, followed, revealing some of the shells, which were to be found so plentiful in the next stratum. Here, at the Pleurotoma attenuata Bed, our harvest commenced, and since Mr. Keeping has worked these beds, no spot has ever yielded such rich results. Every stroke of the pick showed the pearl and opal-shaded colours of the nautilus, and the rich chestnut glaze of the Pecten corneus, whilst at the bottom lay the great thick-shelled Carditæ planicostæ. Inside one of these were enclosed two most lovely specimens of Calyptræa trochiformis. Mr. Keeping here, too, found a young specimen of Natica cepacea (?), and I had the good fortune to turn up the largest Pleurotoma attenuata ever yet discovered, measuring 4½ inches in length, and 3¼ inches in circumference round the thickest whorl.

We were now down no less than 8 feet. And at this stage the water from the brook, which had been threatening, began to burst in upon us from the north side. We, however, with intervals of bailing, still pushed on till we reached the next bed of pale clay, measuring from 7 to 8 inches, containing Cassidariæ highly pyritised, and sharks' teeth, amongst which Mr. Keeping discovered an enormous spine, measuring at least 10 inches in length, but we were unable to take it out perfect. The water had all this time been gaining upon us, in spite of our continuous efforts to bail it with buckets. We, however, 246