At Bracklesham Bay, near Chichester, in Sussex, the characteristic shells of this member of the Eocene series are best seen; among others, the huge _Cerithium giganteum_, so conspicuous in the calcaire grossier of Paris, where it is sometimes 2 feet in length. The volutes and cowries of this formation, as well as the lunulites and other corals, seem to favour the idea of a warm climate having prevailed, which is borne out by the discovery of a serpent _Palaeophis typhaeus_, exceeding, according to Mr. Owen, 20 feet in length, and allied to the Boa, Python, Coluber, and Hydrus. The compressed form and diminutive size of certain caudal vertebrae indicate so much analogy with Hydrus as to induce the Hunterian professor to pronounce the extinct ophidian to have been marine.[199-B] He had previously combated with so much success the evidence advanced, to prove the existence in the Northern Ocean of sea-serpents in our own times, that he will not be suspected of any undue bias in contending for their former existence in the British Eocene seas. The climate, however, of the Middle Eocene period was evidently far more genial; and amongst the companions of the sea-serpent of Bracklesham was an extinct Gavial (_Gavialis Dixoni_, Owen), and numerous fish, such as now frequent the seas of warm latitudes, as the sword-fish (see fig. 172. p. 200.) and gigantic rays of the genus Miliobates. (See fig. 173.) Out of 193 species of testacea procured from the Bagshot and Bracklesham beds in England, 126 occur in the French calcaire grossier. It was clearly, therefore, coeval with that part of the Parisian series more nearly than with any other. The _Nummulites laevigatus_ (see fig. 174.), a fossil characteristic of the lower beds of the calcaire grossier, is abundant at Bracklesham. [Illustration: Fig. 172. Prolonged premaxillary bone or "sword" of a fossil sword-fish (_Caelorhynchus_). Bracklesham. Dixon's Fossils of Sussex, pl. 8.] [Illustration: Fig. 173. Dental plates of _Myliobates Edwardsi_. Bracklesham Bay. Ibid. pl. 8.] [Illustration: Fig. 174. _Nummulites_ (_Nummularia_) _laevigatus._ Bracklesham. Ibid. pl. 8. _a._ section of the nummulite. _b._ group, with an individual showing the exterior of the shell.]