208 



A NEW SECTION NEAR BRANTINGHAMTHORPE, 

 YORKSHIRE. 



JOHN PRINGLE, F.G.S. 



Some specimens obtained from a small opening recently made 

 by Sir John Sherburn in a field between EUerker and Branting- 

 hamthorpe were submitted to me by Mr. T. Sheppard for 

 examination. The excavation, which is situated not far 

 from the words ' trial shaft ' engraved on Sheet 86 of the 

 one-inch Geological Map, showed the following details : — 



Sand and gravel with fragments of Liassic 



and Chalk rocks ... ... ... 3 to 4 ft. 



Stiff blue clay [Upper Lias] ... 6 



Dark grey shale with seams of brown 

 ferruginous oolite and pellets of 

 bluish-green ironstone. Iron-pyrites 

 fairly abundant in matrix. [Middle 

 Lias] ... ... ... ... ... seen | 



The specimens of blue clay contained no fossils, but the 

 bed is probably of Upper Lias age, and comparable with a 

 portion of the blue shale with nodules of cement stone passed 

 through in the shaft made at a point where the footpath to 

 Ellerker crosses Moor Lane. * This view is further 

 strengthened by the fact that the underlying dark grey in- 

 durated shale with seams of brown-weathering ferruginous 

 oolite clearly belongs to the Marlstone, since it yields the 

 following shells, Pec ten {Psendopecten) aeqitivalvis J. Sow., 

 Protocardia truncata (J. de C. Sow.), and Belemnites cf. 

 breviformis Voltz. These fossils are characteristic of the 

 Pecten and Main ironstone seams of the Cleveland district. 



Several of the rock-samples of the Marlstone have a curious 

 cellular aspect apparently resulting from the partial solution 

 of the grains of oolite, and it is not surprising that further 

 progress v/ith the excavation was prevented by a copious 

 inflow of water. 



The Journal of Roman Studies (Vol. IX., I't. i) contains * Verro's 

 Aviary at Casinum,' by A. VV . Van Buren and R. .M. Kennedy. 



We learn that the Leicester Museum and Art Gallery is to be closed 

 two days a week, and that every night branch library is to be closed until 

 further notice, in view of the present restricted incomes of these excellent 

 Institutions. As Leicester is probably the only important place in the 

 whole country where such drastic steps have to be taken, it seems an 

 unfortunate coincidence that the president of the Museums Association, 

 who is Ihf' chief librarian in that city, should have charge of the Museum 

 and An C.allcrN . 



* C. Fox Strangways. Jurassic Rocks of Yorkshire (Me))i. Geol. 

 Surv.), 1892, p. 144. 



Naturalist 



