1 70 Mr. J. Lycett on the so-called Sands 



XVI. — On the Sands intermediate the Inferior Oolite and Lias 

 of the Cotteswold Hills, compared with a similar deposit upon 

 the Coast of Yorkshire, By John Lycett*. 



My friend Professor Buckman having invited me to throw to- 

 gether some geological conclusions to serve as a foundation for 

 a discussion, I select a subject which has already received some 

 consideration at the hands of the Club, and which, from its local 

 position, and a difference of opinion which has arisen with respect 

 to the zoological affinities of its fauna, seems to claim some 

 further examination. I allude to the series of micaceous sands 

 and marls which are situated intermediate the Inferior Oolite 

 and Lias, and which are known to English geologists generally 

 as the Sands of the Inferior Oolite, and to continental cultivators 

 of the science as the Jurensis marls ; the Gres Supraliassique ; 

 the Hydroxyde Oolithique ; the superior portion of the Upper 

 Lias; the Lias Zete of Quenstedt, &c. Dr. Wright f and Mr. 

 Hull J have each recently exemplified this deposit in copious 

 and well-known memoirs ; but as regards the Cotteswold Na- 

 turalists^ Club, the present is the first communication which has 

 been presented to it in a written form. The conclusions arrived 

 at by the authors above referred to are based solely upon zoo- 

 logical evidence, and are therefore liable to be affected by sub- 

 sequent additions, which may tend to alter the relative propor- 

 tions of Oolitic or of Liassic species found in the deposit ; and 

 as some interesting accessions to its fauna have recently been 

 made, more especially in the lower fossiliferous zone, which was 

 but little known until within these few months, I present a 

 notice of them, with the remark, that although as contributions 

 they possess some value, they by no means afford a triumph to 

 any foregone theoretical conclusions ; — that they may be com- 

 pared rather to a portion of the materials forming a part of the 

 structure of a buried edifice whose proportions are not yet fully 

 developed, and of whose full history so much yet remains to be 

 ascertained, that at present it would be injudicious to indulge 

 in absolute conclusions respecting it. This sandy deposit must 

 be seen to be fully appreciated : presenting much variability in 

 its thickness throughout its long course in the Cotteswolds, it 

 is everywhere readily recognized, and even the approximate 

 position of any small exposures of it may be predicated with 

 tolerable exactness. Unfortunately, nearly the whole of the 



* Read to the Cotteswold Naturalists' Club, July 28, 1857. 



t " On the so-called Sands of the Inferior Oolite." Joum. Geol. Soo. 

 1856. 



X Mem. of the Geol. Surv. of Or. Brit. " The country around Chelten- 

 ham." 1857. 



