8i 



FOSSIL PLANTS FROM THE MARSKE AND 

 UPLEATHAM QUARRIES, YORKSHIRE. 



Rev. GEORGE J. LANE, F.G.S., 



AND 



Mk.T. W. SAUNDERS. 



A PARTY of Yorkshire geologists, as intimated in a previous 

 issue of the ' NaturaHst,' visited the Marske quarries in Septem- 

 ber 1908. On that occasion many specimens of Lower 

 Estuarine plants were obtained, and by this time, no doubt, their 

 genera and species will have been determined. The two quarries 

 are rich in plant remains, and the writers were urged by the 

 geological party above mentioned, to make further investiga- 

 tions. This delightful task has been prosecuted with vigour. 

 To readers unacquainted with these quarries, a few elucida- 

 tory notes will be helpful. Mr. Fox-Strangways, in his memoir 

 of Jurassic strata of Yorkshire, gives the following table of 

 Bajocian strata : — 



1. Upper Estuarine beds. | 4. Millepore beds. 



2. Grey or Scarborough Limestone. | 5. Lower Estuarines. 



3. Middle Estuarines. | 6. Dogger. 



Plants have been collected from each of these Estuarine 

 beds. The Millepore bed is absent in North-East Yorkshire, 

 making the line of demarcation between the Middle and Lower 

 Estuarines difficult to determine. The Marske and Upleatham 

 quarries are situated on the northern and southern faces of the 

 Upleatham outlier of the Inferior Oolite. They are within easy 

 access from Marske or Saltburn, and are equidistant from either 

 station. The sandstones in the quarries are massive, lenticular, 

 and current-bedding is conspicuous in both quarries. Super- 

 posed upon these sandstones are deposits of sandy shales, and 

 above these there is a thin capping of glacial drift. Between 

 the sandstones and shales there occurs a band of ironstone which, 

 in some places, reveals a confused mass of fossil plants. This 

 stratum of .ironstone is continuous throughout the two quarries, 

 in some parts attaining a thickness of eighteen inches, while 

 in others, it thins out so as to be almost unrecognisable. This 

 ironstone band is not fossiliferous throughout, large sections 

 shewing not a vestige of a plant. The shales above the iron- 

 stone also contain plants, but these are sometimes very difficult 

 to decipher, the venation being not so well preserved as in the 

 ironstone. 



11)09 March i. 



