84. 
NORCOTE CUTTING. 
ft. ins. 
1. Soil, and weathered rubble forming sub-soil_... seen oats 
2. Band of shelly impure tile-stone 0 
3. Blue clay te 0 
4. Coarse tile-stone, loedily called ‘Crap ” oe ee O 
5. Blueclay ... = 522450 
6. Yellow and Blue Gis Marble, with nibey pone 2 
7 0 
8 
9 
tol 
Blue clay parting ae om ae dee 
Blue Ostrcea Marble, with ie nego He re icoa ee 
Dark clay, with much wood sc sac 0 
Orwowdrevae 
10. Close-grained pink speckled Marble, with Oolitic ‘pte 
but no shells... oie je | 
11. Alternate bands of clay and Fissile Slaty Beds, eich tots 
one to four inches in thickness ; five bands of clay and 
five of the tile-stone ... : : 2 65 
12. Dark blue clay, with thin harder ae ae ccs | 
13. Alternate bands (six in all) of clay and coarse shelly beds .... 1 113 
14. Compact shelly stone, with abundant Oolitic granules Uae fi 
15. Dark blue clay Fe en th ct cic “3 ne OTD 
The beds of Blue and Yellow Ostrea Marble (Nos. 6 and 8) 
are the typical shelly limestones which give the name of 
“Marble” to the formation. They take a beautiful polish, 
and, when compact enough, make one of the handsomest of 
ornamental stones. I have seen several examples of them in 
worked stones used in local buildings. A very interesting 
“Capital”? worked from the blue bed, is in the possession of 
Mr James, Builder, Cirencester. It is unfortunately very 
difficult to get large blocks free from pockets of clay ; these of 
course render the stones useless for polishing purposes. These 
clay pockets are remarkable in having all the same shape, 
that of a short elliptical spindle somewhat like a closed bivalve 
molluse’s shell, though they are of different sizes. I make the 
suggestion that they represent the fillings in of the closed. 
shells of various Lamellibranchiata, whose remains make up 
almost the whole bed, but I propose to discuss the question in 
a paper on the paleontology of the local Forest Marbles as 
a whole. 
