606 Limestone Quarries and Petrifying Spring 



ft. in. 



16. 'Blue bed' - indurated clay, containing very few shells - 1 1L 



17. * Top hard! very like 'Blue bed;' only, in places, con- 



bed' siderably harder - - -10 



18. ' Red bed ' - of a lighter colour than the preceding stratum, 



inclining to grey, and a great deal harder - 1 6 



19. 'Irony or~| grit, with shells. Unless softened by water, 



hard shelly J- the hardest stratum in the whole group 9 



bed' J 



20. 'Bottom bed' very like 'Blue bed' - - 1 6 



21. 'Shab' - a species of argillaceous ironstone, with an 



infinity of small shells, immediately above 



the first layer of limestone - 1 1 



59 8 



The limestone occurs in three layers, shales of various 

 degrees of hardness and consistence intervening as follows, 

 with but very little variation, over the whole quarry : — 



1 . First layer 1 a complete aggregate of very fine small bivalve 

 of limestone J shells j the animals of which, judging from 



their perfect unbroken state, must have 

 lived and died on the spot where they are 

 now collected ; many of them not much 

 bigger than a pin's head. Contains very 

 little iron ; and affords most excellent lime Oil 



2. ' Slate bed ' T shales, more or less earthy ; containing oc- 

 ' Slate' J casionally, though very seldom, a long 



muscle-like shell ; generally speaking, how- 

 ever, destitute of shells - - 5 



3. The second 1 contains a good deal of iron, but few shells, 



layer of lime- j- and furnishes very poor lime - * 5 



stone J 



4. ' Dirt beds ' - earthy shale - - 1 1 



5. The third ~| abounding in shells ; and furnishing, like the 

 layer of lime- V first layer of limestone, most excellent 



stone J lime - - - 5 



59 ft. 8in.+3ft. 6in.=63 2 



Below this, at the deserted shaft, now filled in some places 

 two feet deep with water, whence I procured the calcareous 

 water mentioned below, occurs a bed, several feet thick, of 

 hard calciferous grit, excavated, in other parts of the county, 

 for repairing the road, which is identical with the Tilgate 

 stone, so celebrated as the deposit from which the bones 

 of those extraordinary creatures before mentioned, mega- 

 losaurus, iguanodon, &c, were procured by Mr. Mantell. In 

 a glen, called the Gill, a little below Pounceford Farm, through 

 which flows a small rivulet, on the banks of which irre- 

 gularly shaped nodules of argillaceous ironstone occasionally 

 occur, are some interesting sections of curiously twisted 

 strata. 



