VOL. XVII. (i) GEOLOGICAL INFORMATION 55 



section is of sand, varying in depth from 3 to ii feet, 

 with hard blue clay underlying it, and a large quantity of 

 water on top of the blue clay. 



" The total cost is about ^^12,000." 



The heaviest piece of work, as will be understood from the 

 above, was the tunneUng through the hill immediately to the 

 west of Whitehall Farm (8). The tunnel for its entire length 

 was through tough blue Lias clay. Some impure limestone- 

 nodules occurred in the clay, and the fossils obtained from it 

 were Coroniceras meridionalis (Reynes), Mtonioceras colesi (J. 

 Buckman), Agassizoceras sauzeanum (d'Orbigny), Plagiostoma 

 gigantea, Sowerby, and Gryphcea arcuata : the ammonites indi- 

 cating rotiformis-hirchi hemeras. The last two fossils are quite 

 common on the surface of the field at the place indicated 

 by the figure (9) on the map. 



Several of the tunnel working-shafts proved the presence 

 of a superficial deposit of gravel and some sand upon the Lias 

 clay. From the base of the Superficial Deposit issued forth a 

 considerable quantity of water, and water also came out from 

 the clay at about 23 feet down. Except for this, the tunnel 

 would have been remarkably dry, for it was extraordinary 

 how little water there was in the blue clay other than 

 hydroscopic. 



In the field north of Hester's- Way Farm ' (10) the clay 

 dug out yielded numbers of specimens of Dentalium parvuluin, 

 Richardson {ex J. Buckman, MS.), AdcBonina sp., Cerithium 

 sp., and fragments of Arietites iurneri (Sow.) Fragments of 

 ammonites of the same species were found in the clay dug out 

 of the trench where it followed the road (11) ; while Gryphcea 

 arcuata occurred sparingly in the selenitic clays exposed in the 

 trench where it cuts across the field so as to avoid the bend of 

 the road. Here also were found many saurian vertebrae. 



The trench crosses the Arle Road where the sand and clay 

 meet, but along the lane up which it is continued the junction 

 is complicated by clay that has been tipped. At the stile there 

 is four feet of sand; but then, for some 30 yards before 

 it turned north-eastwards, the trench exposed patches of sand 

 with tipped clay above. In the field to the north-east, 



I Formerly there was a clay-pit one-sixth oi a mile to the north of this farm, but it has been 

 filled up with gas-lime from the Cheltenham Gas-Works. 



