The author has been engaged during occasional visits to the Vale of Eden in the study of the well-known Brockram conglomerates which form so conspicuous an element in the Poikilitic series of the district. Tentative results obtained five or six years ago have been fully confirmed by later observations, and though the investigation is not quite complete, the author regards the present occasion as an opportune one for presenting a preliminary statement of views which have already obtained some currency by annual demonstrations in the field to scientific societies of the North of England.

The correct sequence of the Inferior Oolite deposits at this locality has always been a matter of uncertainty. This is due partly to the disturbed state of the oolite, partly to the scarcity of fossils. On Bredon Hill only the four lowest subdivisions of the Inferior Oolite series are preserved. In the Cotteswold Hills around Cheltenham they are, in descending order, the Lower Freestone, Pea - grit, Lower Limestone, and sandy beds characterized by a very distinctive ammonite, Tmetoceras scissum — the last being the sandy ferruginous limestones of Witchell. Professor Hull did not recognize the Pea-grit at Bredon, but stated that its most northern extension was at Notting Hill. In 1863, however, Dr. Holl rectified this error, and remarked that its non-existence here was only true as regards its pisolitic structure. Above Elmley Lodge that author noticed masses of limestone crowded with fragments of the spines and plates of Echinoderms, as well as numerous specimens of Bryozoa, and Terebratula plicata. Below the brow of the eastern extremity of the hill, above Ashton-under-Hill, Dr. Holl obtained Rhynchonella cynocephala in blocks of hard limestone, but was unable to find the bed in sitû or to offer any suggestion as to its probable stratigraphical position.