O94 
“¢beds of the formation, but at the Hyde, a hamlet one mile 
“¢ from Minchinhampton, a small road section discloses a con- 
““¢olomerate of the Great Oolite; the rolled calcareous hard 
““¢ pebbles having a matrix of pale fine-grained limestone.’ 
“The large Pebble was brought to me a few years ago 
“by an old man (Wm. Kirby), who lives at the village of the 
“Box, on the southern edge of Minchinhampton Common. 
“‘ He said that he found it amongst the stones thrown out from 
“a small surface quarry on the Common just above the Box 
“village. I believe him to be truthful, and have no reason to 
“doubt his word. I examined the quarry and the stones from 
“it, but did not find any other pebble or any fossils. This 
“small quarry was opened and worked for road stone only for 
“a, short time, and is now closed. It lies about 60 or 70 feet 
“below the highest part of the Common.” 
When in London I showed these pebbles to Professor 
Etheridge, and we both thought, from their great density, that 
they were an igneous rock, but on cutting them, they were 
found to be Carboniferous, and shewing, under the microscope, 
Oolitic structure. 
Mr Etheridge was of opinion that the rocks were unlike 
any in the Forest of Dean, and belieyed they were derived from 
Tortworth ; a specimen from there I hold in my hand. 
Now the interesting question is, did these rock specimens 
come out of the Great Oolite, having been embedded at the 
time of its deposition ? 
There is no evidence in the whole range of the Cotteswold 
Oolites of the presence of any rock derived from a much older 
bed. But in the drift which is found all over the area, I have 
met with Mountain limestone and Millstone grit at Cropthorne ; 
at Lower Lemington there is a large boulder of Carboniferous 
limestone 20 inches long, 12 inches thick, and 15 inches broad ; 
at Row Hill in the parish of Leigh, 24 miles before reaching 
Cricklade, Millstone grit, micaceous Old Red Sandstone, Quartz, 
Chert from the Mountain limestone; at Weston Park a large 
boulder of Millstone grit; at Moreton, Coal Measure Sandstone; 
at Limbury, Silurian fossils, Syenite, Granite, Lickey Quartz, 
