134 Geological Society. 
PROCEEDINGS OF LEARNED SOCIETIES. 
GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 
March 14th, 1917.—Dr. A. Smith Woodward, F.R.S., 
Vice-President, in the Chair. 
The following communication was read :— 
‘The Carboniferous Limestone bordering the Leicestershire 
Coalfield.’ By Leonard Miles Parsons, D.I.C., B.Se., F.G.S. 
The inliers of Carboniferous Limestone situated along the 
northern border of the Leicestershire Coalfield crop out in two 
well-defined series : i 
zontal beds exposed by stream-erosion, and an Eastern series in 
which the limestone is highly inclined and complicated by faulting. 
The thinly-bedded limestones, shales, and dolomites of the 
Western inliers are of a slightly-higher horizon than that of 
the uppermost beds of the more massive dolomites seen at Breedon 
and Breedon Cloud farther eastwards. In no part of the district 
is the base of the Carboniferous seen, although borings have 
shown that the limestone rests upon pre-Cambrian rocks in the 
neighbourhood of Charnwood Forest. 
The dolomites of the area yield evidence of two distinct periods 
of dolomitization—one pre-Triassic, the other subsequent to the 
Trias. During the former period the bulk of the rock was 
dolomitized. 
The fauna of the limestones and dolomites indicates the presence 
of paleontological harizons ranging from D, to D,—D, inclusive. 
The D, portion of the sequence, consisting of thickly-bedded 
dolomites without chert, contains a fauna similar to that of 
the Caldon-Low facies of the south-western part of the Main 
Midland Province, the rare species Productus humerosus being 
found at Breedon and Breedon Cloud. 
Unlike the rocks of the D, subzone of Derbyshire, the corre- 
sponding beds in Leicestershire contain no igneous rocks equivalent 
to the ‘'Toadstones.’ Higher dolomites with chert, equivalent to 
the cherty limestones of Derbyshire, yield a D, fauna, which 
somewhat resembles that of the localized development of the 
Lonsdaleia Subzone in the south-western part of the Midland 
area, in the region of Waterhouses. 
A typical D, development is not present in Leicestershire, 
although the upper barren dolomites of Ticknall may represent 
part of the Cyathaxonia Subzone of other districts. 
The Pendleside Beds are poorly represented by about 30 feet of 
blue shales, which are succeeded conformably by the Millstone 
Grit. 
