83 
speaking very roughly, they are cut by the line at about right 
angles. 
The undulating character of the Cotteswolds of this 
district, with its long bare rolling downs and deep dry sinuous 
valleys or combes, through most of which no water appears to 
have ever flowed, obliges the railway engineer to construct his 
line by alternate cuttings and embankments. For the purposes 
of the geologist nothing could be more fortunate, the cuttings 
reveal the rocks in their stratigraphical relationship, the 
embankments supply him with material for fossil hunting for 
years to come. A glance at the reduced section on the opposite 
page, (which I am enabled to give by the kindness of Mr 
Shopland, the Engineer to the Railway Company) shows this 
alternation of cutting with embankment, and is itself a fair 
index to the physical character of the South-eastern Cotteswolds. 
I have given local names to the various cuttings, obtained in some 
cases from conversation with those who live near them, suggested 
in others by well-known contiguous topographical marks. 
The first cutting, about half a mile north of the Midland 
and South Western Junction Station at Cirencester, is the 
Norcote Cutting. It is also called by some of the local 
labourers the “Beeches” Cutting. It is through the middle 
beds of the Forest Marble. It was first excavated in 1885, and 
- was visited by the Club on 20th July, 1886. From financial or 
other causes an interval of some years elapsed between the 
opening of this cutting and the rest of the line. It is inter- 
esting from a botanist’s point of view to note how rapidly a 
luxuriant growth of wild plants has spontaneously covered the 
sloping sides of this cutting. A gorse bush, already from two 
to three feet high is well established in one spot; the water 
Figwort (Scrophularia aquatica,) and a great variety of Juncacee 
(Rushes) and Cyperacee (Sedges) have established themselves 
in the wet clay debris by the sides of the rails. Some of these 
plants are unusual in the immediate neighbourhood, and it is a 
matter of constant wonder how they so quickly appear on new 
ground which suits them. This is especially so with the 
Juncacee at this spot. 
G2 
