THE MAGAZINE 



OF 



NATURAL HISTORY, 



NOVEMBER, 1837. 



Art. I. Outlines of the Geology of Nettleton Hill, Lincolnshire. 

 By William Hey Dikes, Esq., F.G.S., and John Edward 

 Lee, Esq., one of the Secretaries of the Hull Literary and 

 Philosophical Society. 



In the following attempt to give some idea of the modifi- 

 cations of green sand which appear in the north-east of Lin- 

 colnshire, it will be our endeavour to describe, as accurately 

 as possible, a small tract of country, which contains numerous 

 sections of all the beds, from the chalk to the Kimmeridge 

 clay inclusive. The neighbourhood of Nettleton, a small 

 village near the market town of Caistor, is what has been se- 

 lected for this purpose. 



The accompanying map will give a general notion of the 

 geological nature of the country. The space left white re- 

 presents the chalk and chalk marl ; the two light lines fol- 

 lowing the course of the lower beds are the red chalk ; the 

 black line is what, for the sake of distinction, we will call 

 Thoresway sand. The horizontal lines signify what is pro- 

 vincially called "grey stone.'' The diagonal lines are green 

 sand and sandstone ; and the space covered with dotted ho- 

 rizontal lines represents the Kimmeridge clay. 



Chalk and Chalk Marl. The edge of the chalk in this dis- 

 trict, instead of forming large, rounded, prominent hills, as in 

 Yorkshire, and several parts of Lincolnshire, appears as a 

 thin nearly horizontal bed, spread over the inferior strata, 

 and capping the hills, of which it forms but an inconsiderable 

 portion. For the distance of about a mile or a mile and a 

 half from the outcrop, it forms a platform, nearly horizontal, 

 running north and south, from which on each side a series of 

 valleys run east and west : those on the eastern side extend 

 in a ramified form to the rise of the chalk, at the distance of 

 about 7 miles ; in several of them, for a considerable distance, 

 the chalk has been denuded, and the bottom is formed by 

 the inferior strata. In these cases, the valley loses its usual 



Vol. I. — No. 11. N.s. t t 



