During a preliminary traverse of the Lower Cretaceous outcrop in the Midlands last June, I visited Faringdon for the first time, and examined the famous sections in the ‘Sponge-gravels.’ My chief aim was to obtain some evidence by which the relative position of these beds in the Lower Cretaceous series might be determined. The greater part of the fauna was so anomalous and peculiar that it afforded little or no assistance towards this purpose, and the only common fossil which gave definite promise of service was the fragmentary Belemnites, which I found in unexpected abundance. It is true that I had previously noticed a few specimens among the Faringdon fossils in the Natural History Museum (from the Caleb Evans’ Collection) and in other public collections, and had seen references to Belemnites in descriptions of the ‘Spongegravels’; but I went with the impression that its occurrence was rare and exceptional, whereas I found that it could be collected plentifully from every pit, though always in a more or less worn and fragmentary condition, and generally encrusted with small oysters, serpulæ and polyzoa, and perforated by marine borers. The scant attention which the fossil has hitherto received is probably due to the prevalent opinion that it is derivative from the Jurassics, but this opinion is almost certainly erroneous, as I shall now try to show.

In the large number of specimens which I obtained only one species appears to be represented, and this species cannot, I think, be matched among Jurassic Belemnites.