OF THE COUNTY OF LEICESTER. 7 



rowed by many transverse valleys, down which small brooks run into 

 that river. About half way down this escarpment the gypsum is 

 generally worked, the section in the large quarry near Leicester, at 

 the bottom of Humberstone gate, being — 



FEET 



Red marl, with streaks of white and green, and having near 

 the middle lenticular masses of gypsum lying in the 



plane of the beds 50 



Greenish and white gypsum, with fibrous veins 5 



A bed of dark red marl, one half of its substance being inter- 

 tangled veins of gypsum . 5 



Red marl, &c — 



Wherever the base of this upper portion (the variegated marls) is 

 exposed, it will be found, I believe, to rest upon some whitish sand- 

 stones ; but the country is so much covered up by diluvium that the 

 only place where I have been enabled to verify this fact is the neigh- 

 bourhood of Leicester. In going down from the hill on which 

 Leicester race-course is situated, toward the Soar,f we first of all 

 descend the escarpment of the variegated marls, about half way 

 down which are some old gypsum pits. Having crossed the Soar, 

 we should find in the ditch of the Narborough-road some sandy shale 

 of a light green colour, which, gradually rising to the west, forms the 

 capping of the Dane hills : and below it are some thickish beds of a 

 light coloured sandstone, very soft when first got out of the quarry, 

 but which hardens on exposure to the weather. The Dane hills are 

 covered with old quarries worked in this stone, of which the castle, 

 several of the churches, and other old structures in Leicester are 

 built. The stone, however, though handsome when fresh, assumes 

 with age a rotten worm-eaten appearance, as it wears very unequally. 

 It is, I believe, the same as the Warwick sandstone, but there have 

 been, as yet, no organic remains discovered in it. A saurian tooth, a 

 bone, or the track of an animal, would well reward the perseverance 

 of collectors ; and I hope my friend Mr. Laurance will, ere long, be 

 able to lay before the Leicester Philosophical Society some speci- 

 mens similar to those which the labours of Dr. Lloyd have brought 

 to light near Warwick. The range of this sandstone to the north 



faces, of the different beds of which they are made up are exposed to the 

 view, one beneath another. The slope of the other side, or back of the range 

 as it is called, depends generally on the rate at which the beds dip or incline 

 inwards from the escarpment. 

 + See section No. 1. 



