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Remarks on the Inferior Oolite and Lias in parts of Northampton- 
shire, compared with the same Formations in Gloucestershire. 
By the Rev. P. B. Bropre, M.A., F.G.S. 
Having, at a late meeting of the Cotteswold Naturalists’ Club, 
given a vivd voce account of the Inferior Oolite and Lias in a 
part of Northamptonshire; at the request of the Secretary, I 
have prepared a more detailed description for our ‘ Proceedings.’ 
It is well known that certain beds in the Inferior Oolite im the 
neighbourhood of Northampton have been extensively worked 
for the ironstone which largely prevails in it thereabouts, though 
I believe it is not now so generally used for ceconomical pur- 
poses as it was formerly. This was certainly the case with 
those quarries which I examined near Blisworth. They are not 
worked to any great depth, and occupy the higher ground in the 
district ; the strata consist of sandy ferruginous oolitic stone 
containing a few imperfect casts of shells, though the greater 
part of the mass is unfossiliferous: the top beds are coarse, and 
contain impressions of shells; the lower ones are more com- 
pact, and are composed chiefly of ironstone. The Inferior Oolite 
here appears to be of no great thickness, and differs materially 
- from that of the Cotteswolds. The hills which are occupied by 
it near Blisworth are comparatively low, and form a striking 
contrast to those in Gloucestershire partly composed of the same 
formation. The fossils I obtained were a large Cardium, a Tri- 
gonia, a Pecten, Terebratule, and a few Univalves. Fossils are 
much more abundant at Northampton, though only occurring 
there in the form of casts. 
Upper Lias.—From the position of the Inferior Oolite, the 
Upper Lias was to be looked for at a low level at the base of 
these hills, and I aceordingly found it in a brick-pit in the 
valley at Bugbrook between Weedon and Blisworth, below 
the level of the Railway at no great distance from the Kilsby 
tunnel. Beds of Lias clay and shale are used for brick-making 
with the usual Upper Lias fossils, among which Ammonites 
serpentinus and Belemnites were very prevalent. The clay is 
traversed by a thin, continuous layer of limestone, which, as 
I anticipated, turned out to be the ‘fish bed,’ identical litholo- 
gically with the same band in Gloucestershire, and full of innu- 
merable fragments of fish (though I could discover none entire) 
and coprolites, with some specimens of Inoceramus dubius and 
traces of Sepia. 3 
