VOL. XVII. (I) INFERIOR OOLITE-SOUTH COTTESWOLDS 71 



Witchell very nearly succeeded in unravelling the strati- 

 graphy of the beds above the Upper Tngonia-Gvit. Apparently 

 he was the first to discover the Upper Coral-Bed at Rod- 

 borough Hill; but he was not aware that it extended any 

 further south than this. It was doubtless his failure to see in 

 the "Coralline Beds" of Dundry the equivalent of the 

 Rodborough Hill Upper Coral-Bed that led him into the error 

 of correlating his White OoUte with the Dundry Freestone— a 

 mistake Holl had made before him. 



In 1882 Witchell published "The Geology of Stroud and 

 the Area drained by the Frome.'" It is a useful book, and 

 contains much valuable information. In the " General Sec- 

 tion " of the Inferior Oohte in the vicinity of Stroud, " sandy 

 limestone " and " freestone " is mentioned as occurring between 

 the Cephalopod-Bed and Pea-Grit proper. Witchell described 

 the freestone as the " Lower Limestone," and dealt with it m 

 some detail, giving, amongst others, a section at Selsley Hill to 

 show its correct stratigraphical position. He also commented 

 upon the " thinning out " of the Pea-Grit to the south of 

 Stroud, and to the difficulty of distinguishing between the 

 Lower Limestone and the Lower Freestone, when that bed 

 is absent. Concerning the " Ragstone Beds," he did not give 

 much additional information. The "Intervening Beds" at 

 ■Rodborough he grouped all together as Gryphite-Gnt, and the 

 lower 2 feet of the Upper Trigonia-Gvit of Leigh's Quarry on 

 Selsley Hill he assigned to the same subdivision. 



The next two papers to be noticed are also by Witchell. 

 The one "On the Pisohte and the Basement Beds of the 

 Inferior Oohte of the Cotteswolds," was contributed to the 

 Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society for 1886 ; ' the 

 other, with very nearly the same title, to the Proceedings of 

 the Cotteswold Club.^ Both have the same object, but, as it 

 happens, the Quarterly- Journal paper is the more satisfactory 

 of the two. The common purpose was to point out that there 

 were beds between the Cephalopod-Bed and Pea-Grit proper 

 which were worthy of distinct appellation. Lycett and Wright 

 had both of them thought that the lower portion, or Witchell's 

 " sandy ferruginous beds " corresponded to the Pea-Grit of the 



I Pp. 37-68. 2 Pp. 264-271. 3 Vol. viii., pt. I (for 1881-82), pp. 35-49- 



