neighbourhood of Grantham. 55 



Near the above is another quarry, in which the strata above 

 the freestone are thicker, the blue clay no. 1 amounting to a 

 thickness of 20 feet, and resting upon a hard blue stone containing 

 many shells, especially a large species of Avicula, and broken 

 fragments of carbonized plants, but too imperfect to determine. 

 There is a soft, yellow, sandy band at it3 base also full of similar 

 vegetable remains ; — the total thickness of the two beds does not 

 exceed 2 feet. The white rag, equivalent to no. 2 in the previous 

 section, is only 1 ft. 3 in. thick, and reposes on the freestone. 



The fossils in the ragstone and freestone are small and not 

 numerous, and as I could obtain only two genera, Area and 

 Cardita, the shells of which were much waterworn, no comparison 

 can be instituted between them and the equivalent series at Bath 

 and Miiichiiiharapton. The abundant remains of plants, and 

 tin if rarity in Gloucestershire and Somerset in the Great Oolite, 

 seem to indicate a closer affinity, zoologically, with the Yorkshire 

 oolites; and I am informed by my friend Mr. Lycett that he 

 and Mr. Morris could identify very few of the Great Oolite 

 fossils of the north with those of the south of England. The 

 building freestone is perhaps softer, as a mass, than that near 

 Stroud and Bath, while it is remarkably distinguished by its 

 waved, purple and pink colours, which give it the appearance of 

 certain portions of the new and old red sandstones, and add 

 greatly to the beauty of the material for architectural purposes. 



Inferior Oolite. 



The Inferior Oolite takes a less regular course in its extension 

 on the north-east of the Cotswold chain of hills. It is bounded 

 on the east by the Great Oolite, and on the west by the lias ; 

 but as it has been subject to great denudation in the counties of 

 Northampton, Rutland and Lincoln, the escarpments generally 

 are less bold and rugged, and the hills comparatively low. In 

 Lincolnshire it forms a bleak, open country like the Wolds of 

 Gloucestershire, and it is well-adapted for turnips. The stone 

 frequently lies close to the surface, so that the soil is very stony, 

 like the cornbrash in Wiltshire; and this probably is mainly 

 attributable to the amount of aqueous action to which it has 

 been subject. In parts of Rutlandshire the soil is of a deep red 

 colour (which distinguishes the upper beds in the Cotswolds), 

 and much better wooded than in the neighbourhood of Grantham ; 

 but in no case does it afford that romantic and beautiful scenery 

 which especially characterizes the Lower Oolites in Gloucester- 

 shire. The village of Denton four miles south-west of Grant- 

 ham is certainly a pretty spot, and there the Inferior Oolite 

 bears a close lithological resemblance to a portion of the series at 

 Leckhampton, Crickley and elsewhere. The following is a sec- 



g2 



