i6o PROCEEDINGS COTTESWOLD CLUB 191 1 



excavation several thousand tons may be obtained, the next may yield 

 only a small quantity. Some of the excavations show two or more beds 

 at different depths, separated by marl, and sometimes introduced between 

 the beds of the underlying Palaeozoic series. Generally near the surface 

 will be found isolated celestite masses, then may come an irregular bed of 

 the mineral ; this may be followed by a deposit of marl, and lower again, 

 another bed of celestite. The beds are not continuous, but sometimes thin 

 out, or break off suddenly, but commence again further on at the same level. 

 The deposits vary in character. In some the celestite forms a mixture of 

 angular and subangular masses of irregular shape and varying size ; in other 

 cases the fragments are rounded. There occur also large geodal masses, 

 sometimes weighing several hundredweight, and containing beautiful crystals. 

 The crystals vary much in size, some being small, while others associated 

 with them may reach a length of three to three-and-a-half inches. 



After lunch at the Portcullis Hotel, Chipping Sodbury, the Members 

 drove to Wick Rocks and, by kind permission of MrW. JMachell, the Managing 

 Director of the West of England Ochre and Oxide Co. Ltd., inspected the 

 Ochre Mines at Gatheram. 



Ochre is a form of hematite, only more earthy, and there are two principal 

 kinds — yellow and red. The ochre here occurs in the Keuper deposits and 

 is worked in adits driven along the dip of the beds. It is ground and treated 

 in mills, and is largely employed in the manufacture of paints, etc. 



The Members were much impressed at the picturesqueness of the Wick 

 Rocks, and it was explained that the scenery is due to the presence of Carboni- 

 ferous rocks, which here occur as an inlier in the Neozoic rocks.' 



A number of specimens were obtained from the Limestone, and then the 

 Members drove to Mangotsficld, and caught the 5.5 p.m. train for Gloucester. 



HALF-DAY EXCURSION TO CHARLTON COMMON, Ne.\r 

 CHELTENHAM 



Saturday, May 23th. 1910 



Director : L. Richardson 

 (Report by L. Richardson) 



The Members met at the tram-terminus at the foot of Leckhampton 

 Hill at 3 p.m., and walked up to the house called " Daisybank." Here 

 Mr Richardson said it was unnecessary to describe the detailed structure of 

 this hill-mass, because it had been done so often of recent years, and was 

 set forth in print in the Club's " Proceedings."- Briefly, however, the vale- 

 land was clay, Lower Lias ; this Lower-Lias clay gradually gave place at 

 the foot of the hill to the sandy beds of the Middle Lias (of which the topmost 

 portion was the hard Marlstone), while above the Middle Lias came the Upper 

 Lias. In the South Cotteswolds nearly all the Upper Lias was sand (Cottes- 

 wold Sands), while here it was clay. But the top-portion of the clay at 

 Leckhampton was somewhat sandy, and for that reason had been dug in 

 the opening near to where they were standing for mi.xing with the " stronger " 

 clay of the vale to make a suitable earth for use at the Cotswold Potteries. 3 

 A very plastic clay was required for pottery-making, and the ordinary' blue 

 Lias clay by itself was no good for the purpose. .-Xbove the Upper Lias comes 

 the Inferior Oolite, which, as the Members knew well enough, was full of 

 fossils at certain horizons. 



1 An account of " The Geology of the Wick Rocks Valley," bv Prof. C. Lloyd Morgan, will bi" 

 found in the Proc. Bristol Nat. Soc, vol. vi., pp. 183-188. 



2 Proc. Cotteswold Nat. F. C, vol. xv., pt. 3 (1906), pp. 182-189. 



3 Proc. Cheltenham Nat. Sci. Soc., n.s., vol i., pt. 4 (1910), pp. 263-264. 



