3IO PROCEEDINGS COTTESWOLD CLUB 1912 



because the carbonated waters produced by the decomposing 

 vegetable matters are acidic and act on the iron oxide, dis- 

 solving it and causing the reddening of the standing waters near 

 the peat-moss. But in this district all the peaty bogs have 

 been drained with the exception of those near Shaw Green, 

 Prestbury (49) and Cakebridge Farm (51). 



The presence of the first peaty patch is readily shown by the 

 extremely black soil in the market-gardens near St. Peter's Church, 

 and in those on the other (west) side of the Midland Railway. 



The second patch (51) is a long drawn out one and occurs on 

 the clay between the clay and sand areas. A stick, 10 feet long, was 

 easily pushed down up to its end in the bog at the spot just below the 

 figure (51) on the map. The acid nature of the water in a part at least 

 of the sand-bed is shown by the ferruginous water that issues from the 

 deposit and which has caused the incrustation of many of the pebbles 

 with irony matter in the neighbourhood of the spot marked (22). 



The extent of the third patch (50) is also readily shown by the rich 

 black soil. It is not thick, however, because yellow clay shows through 

 it here and there and junciis grows in tufts. An interesting fact in 

 connection with this locality is that snipe congregate in the winter 

 around the pool at the south-western end of this peaty tract. 



The fourth piece is a curious little piece of damp boggy ground. 



The fifth patch (48) is very similar to the third. 



Marine Shells and Mammalian Remains in the Super- 

 ficial Deposits. — Hull, in the Geological Survey Memoir on 

 "The Geology of the Country around Cheltenham" (1857), 

 writes (p. 92) concerning what he calls the " Estuarine or 

 Mammaliferous " gravels, that 



as they approach the hills [they] are almost exclusively composed of 

 liassic and oolitic fragments, [but] in the opposite direction, towards 

 Cheltenham, give place to fine siliceous sand containing fragments of 

 marine shells. 



The italics are mine. I have not found, neither have I 

 heard of anyone else who has found, fragments of marine shells 

 (other than of derived fossils from the Lias and Oolite) in the 

 Superficial Deposits of this district. The authors of the 

 second edition of Murchison's " Outline of the Geology of the 

 Neighbourhood of Cheltenham " (1844), write (p. 60) : 



" These beds of detritus . . . appear to contain no organic 

 remains of contemporary date with themselves." 



Nor have I found, or heard or read of anyone else who has 

 found, remains of mammoth, etc., in the Superficial Deposits 

 of the area under consideration ; but they have been procured 

 in the continuation of the same deposit in the railway-cutting 

 between Charlton Kings and Leckhampton Stations. Mr S. S. 

 Buckman informs me that a deer horn was obtained from the 

 same place. 



