93 
On the first visit of the Club to this spot, I pointed out 
masses of blue shelly limestone made up of Ostrwa acuminata. 
which the contractor’s foreman repeatedly assured me came 
from this cutting. I never was fortunate enough to see them 
in situ, but they are undoubtedly Fuller’s Earth limestones, and 
I am inclined to think did come from this spot, probably at a 
greater depth than is now exposed. They were said to occur 
in irregular masses of large size, and a member of the Club, 
Mr Smith, of Nailsworth, has exhibited similar rock specimens 
from Fuller’s Earth, at Nailsworth. 
_I have also compared my specimens with specimens in the 
Jermyn Street Museum, of shelly limestones of the Fuller’s 
Earth, and they are identical. 
Across the valley of Chedworth about five hundred yards 
from this cutting the line enters the Fuller’s Earth clays, and 
the tunnel continues in it for some distance, emerging in the 
upper beds of the Inferior Oolite. The clays are full of the 
shells of Ostrea acuminata. 
It is a matter of common remark that the rocky sub-soils 
over the Cotteswold area bear a marked family likeness in their 
physical characters. They are generally called “ brashy,” 
consisting of rubbly masses of stone not unlike the rough 
irregular masses of unbroken roadstone. I may best illustrate 
this by quoting an observation frequently made to me, “ How 
is it that the surface beds of stone in our quarries are all 
alike?” It is noticed in walking through the various sections on 
this line, that each bed as it rises near the surface and becomes 
the immediate sub-soil deposit, takes on this character. It is 
certainly due to the action of surface rain-water percolating 
through the soil, and by virtue of its contained acids disinte- 
grating the limestones, naturally first of all along fissures, 
cracks and weak spots, thus gradually breaking a fairly compact 
stratum of limestone into a mere layer of separate bits of stone. 
I have not given any account as yet of the various fossils 
which have been obtained from the rocks described in this 
paper. Their consideration may occupy us on some future 
occasion. 
