Mr. J. Plant on the Keuper Sandstone of Leicester. 71 



steeper declivity in front than on its hind side; this might be 

 carried so far that the foremost wave may even double itself over, 

 and yet, owing to the plasticity of the mass, there might be no 

 breach of continuity. To the transmission of such impulses through 

 lemi-consolidated strata, the author refers for an explanation of the 

 overlapping and inversion of strata seen in the Appalachian and 

 other mountain-ranges. 



The paper concluded with remarks on the indications of the age, 

 and causes influencing the structure of deposits, such as cleavage, 

 &c., in connexion with the foregoing observations on sedimentary 

 formations, and as illustrating, with them, some of the consequences 

 of several physical causes which act through vast intervals of time 

 upon the strata forming the crust of the earth. 



June 4, 1856. — Colonel Portlock, Vice-President, in the Chair. 



The following communications were read : — 



1. "Notice of the Keuper Sandstone and its Fossils found at 

 Leicester." By James Plant, Esq. Communicated by J. W. Salter, 

 Esq., F.G.S. 



The author met with the following section of the Keuper and 

 overlying beds in the immediate vicinity of Leicester, in a N.W. 

 direction: — 1. alluvial deposits, containingremains of Deerand Oxen, 

 with nuts, leaves, &c., 10 feet : 2. gravels and clays, with Elephants'- 

 teeth, oolitic detritus, and boulders of syenitic and metamorphic rocks, 

 30 feet : 3. laminated clays and blue marls, 60 feet: 4. thin strata 

 of Keuper shales, grey marl, and sandstone, with numerous irregular 

 branched casts on the surfaces, usually called Fucoids, but referred 

 by Mr. Plant to Gorgonice. 80 feet : 5. fine silicious white sandstone, 

 in beds about 3 feet thick, occasionally intercalated with by a thin 

 band of carbonaceous matter, 20 feet : 6. clays, thin sandstones, and 

 grey marls, 35 feet: making a total of nearly 200 feet of Keuper beds. 

 Besides the ramiform surface-markings above alluded to, the Keuper 

 here exhibits ripple-marks, foot-tracks, and other superficial impres- 

 sions, and yields some remains of plants, referred to Echinostachys and 

 Voltzia, also numerous specimens of the little Posidonomya minuta, 

 together with teeth and spines of Fish, fragments of bone, and 

 coprolites. The author remarked that the Leicester Keuper most 

 closely agrees with the same formation in Gloucestershire, as de- 

 scribed by Murchison and Strickland, even in lithological characters. 

 The Keuper beds are divisible into three chief members in each 

 district, — the upper, thin sandy shales, with way-boards of green 

 marl, — the middle, thick beds of soft white sandstone, — and the 

 lower like the upper. 



2. " Remarks on the Keuper of Warwickshire." By the Rev, 

 P. B. Brodie, M.A., F.G.S. 



The old quarries on Shrewley Common, described by Murchison 

 and Strickland, are now closed, but excavations near the Canal 

 at Shrewley and Rowington have lately aflTorded sections and some 

 fossils of the Keuper beds, as follows: — 1. Sandstone and marl, a 



