neighbourhood of Grantham. 261 



our colleague Mr. Lyeett, and he states that although the greater 

 number were new to hivci, yet the tendency of the others is 

 towards the Inferior Oolite, and agree specifically with some in 

 our district. Such for instance as the Natica adducta (an ooUte 

 marl shell), but also found in the Great and Inferior Oolite of 

 Yorkshire; Trigonia striata, from the Roestone and Grj^hite 

 grit ; while at the same time there is a new species of Acteonina, 

 Monodonta, &c. At so great a distance we must expect this to 

 be the case, and the identity of a stratum (where the order of 

 superposition is clearly defined) may be sufficiently proved if we 

 can find a few distinctive species in both localities, and among 

 these the Natica macrostoma'i^ is certainly one, a fine series being 

 preserved in the Grantham Museum. It is to be hoped that a 

 larger collection will soon be made, and a careful comparison in- 

 stituted between the Inferior Oolite fossils of Gloucestershire and 

 Lincolnshire. Much has yet to be done in the Oolites generally 

 in England, and with the exception of the standard and inva- 

 luable work, ' The Geology of England and Wales,' by Conybeare 

 and Phillips, and a few local papers, very little is known of the 

 oolitic districts N.E. of the Cotswolds, especially in Lincoln- 

 shire, Rutlandshire and Northamptonshire ; and a wide field is 

 open for the research of an active and intelligent geologist in 

 that quarter; and as our science is strictly a progressive one, in- 

 exhaustible and as yet hidden treasures, rich in their way as the 

 gold of California, may be in store for us. In our Inferior Oolite, 

 corals are more or less distributed throughout the whole ; but no 

 one stratum contains them in greater abundance than the oolite 

 marl, the upper division of which at Crickley has been correctly 

 denominated the "coral bed," and evidently formed an exten- 

 sive coral reef beneath the ocean ; but with the exception of the 

 pisolite, we have no further evidence of suchr eefs in any of the 

 other superior or inferior beds. Hence the abundance of corals 

 in the oolite marl near Grantham, coupled with other facts, such 

 as the frequency of NerincscE, which are usually found associated 

 with corals, and are believed to have inhabited shallow seas, tends 

 to support the probability that the marl in Lincolnshire was de- 

 posited under similar conditions to the marl in Gloucestershire, 

 although many of the shells may be distinct, a very little geo- 

 graphical distance in a sea-bottom being often sufficient to pro- 

 duce a corresponding increase or decrease in the number and 

 variety of species. 



I observed the marl occupying a similar position nearer Gran- 



* With respect to this species, Mr. Lycett is of opinion that it cannot 

 be referred to any known species, and he proposes to call it Natica Leck- 

 hamptonensis. It appears to be confined to the oolite marl, as many others 

 are, and I have never yet seen it in any of the superior or inferior beds. 



