Notes on the Polyzoa and Microzoa of the Red Chalk of Yorkshire and Norfolk. (Plate xvii.)

Abstract

I. INTRODUCTORY. From the time when John Phillips, F.G.S. (1829), published his “Illustrations of the Geology of Yorkshire,” up to the present, the origin and probable horizon of the Red Chalk, have been fairly discussed by authors. It is only within the last thirty years, however, that the stratum has been worked out with any degree of skill, or that any attempt has been made to co-relate the Red Chalk beds, by means of their fossil contents, of Norfolk, Lincolnshire and Yorkshire. Then again, the differences of opinion which have been expressed by authors who have studied the palaeontological evidence, have helped to advance the importance and relative value of the fossil contents of this very peculiar band. It is not my intention, therefore, to comment on opinions raised by men who are far more competent to deal with the subject than I am, but a brief resume of what has been done will serve as a necessary preface to what will follow. In 1829, as regards Yorkshire, John Phillips gave a list of five fossils only, under the head line “Fossils of the Red Chalk,” two of which were figured.* As regards Hunstanton, Professor Sedgwick in 1826† remarked in a foot note “that the red beds of Hunstanton Cliff.....contain the peculiar fossils of the galt in great abundance.” In 1833, Mr. S. Woodward in “An outline of the Geology of Norfolk,”‡ gave a list of fossils of the Hunstanton Beds; and Mr. C. B. Rose (1835), in a series ...