NATURAL HISTORY 



several miles across. On the eastern side of the county, for the southern 

 two-thirds of its length, the Trias is bordered by the lower beds of the 

 Lias, which form a narrow strip between the Keuper and the county 

 boundary. Between the Keuper and Lias is a band of Rhastic shales of 

 insignificant thickness. On the other side of the county the Permian 

 rocks occupy a long narrow area along the western border of the Bunter 

 beds ; and still further to the westward the Permian is followed by a 

 patch of Coal Measures the easterly extension of the Derbyshire and 

 Yorkshire coalfield. 



With the exception of the Drift deposits and the Alluvium of the 

 river valleys, the above are all the formations which occur in Notting- 

 hamshire. 



In a county whose highest ground is only something over 600 feet 

 above sea-level it might be expected that the fauna and flora which 

 characterize the more mountainous parts of Derbyshire and Yorkshire 

 would be absent, as is indeed the case. Also an inland county must 

 necessarily compare unfavourably with one, such as Lincolnshire, which 

 enjoys all the advantages in flora and fauna that the possession of a long 

 line of coast confers. A further circumstance which tends to reduce the 

 number of species, especially of plants and molluscous animals, is the 

 absence of certain geological formations favourable to their occurrence ; 

 even the narrow band of Magnesian Limestone which occurs along the 

 western border of the county, and is the only calcareous rock formation 

 that we possess, is largely spoiled for botanical and faunistic purposes by 

 the long line of collieries and colliery villages with their attendant net- 

 work of railway lines which follow its outcrop. Moreover the high 

 state of cultivation of by far the greater part of the county, and the 

 almost entire absence of undrained bog or marsh land account for the 

 absence at the present day of many forms of life which may once have 

 existed here. 



Still, in spite of all these disadvantages, it will be found from the 

 appended lists that we possess a fauna and flora of considerable richness 

 and variety. Many groups, both of animals and plants, are still however 

 only very imperfectly worked out, and very much still remains to be done 

 before we can form any accurate idea of the full extent of our organic 

 wealth. 



XXIX 



