808 REPORT—1890. 
7. On the Speeton Clays and their Hquivalents in Lincolnshire. By G. W. 
Lamwetuea, £.G.S. 
In a recently published description of the Speeton section,' the author, after 
showing that the accepted classification of the Lower Cretaceous beds had beem 
vitiated by misunderstandings as to certain parts of the series, proposed a re- 
classification, based on the Belemnites, which are the most abundant and most 
characteristic fossils. 
Fresh evidence is now brought forward in support of this suggestion ; and the: 
zones adopted at Speeton have been traced in beds of the same age in Lincolnshire. 
The escarpment in the neighbourhood of the abandoned Acre House ironstone: 
mines affords the most convenient sections, and the following correlation is based. 
chiefly on the fossils collected there :-— 
Speeton : Yorkshire. Acre House: Lincolnshire. 
Red Chalk Red Chalk 
Zone A.—Marls, with Bel. minimus . Carsrane 
Zone B.—Zone of Bel. semicanalicu- Tealby Limestone 
latus (2) 
Zone C.—Zone of Bel. jaculum Tealby Clay 
Zone D.—Zone of Bel. lateralis, apiil Claxby Ironstone 
cluding (E) Coprolite Bed Spilsby Sandstone 
Zone F.—Bituminous Shales ; 7 | 
(Upper Kimeridge of English Upper Kimeridge Shales 
geologists) f 
Noves, 
F. Bituminous Shales.—These undoubtedly Upper Jurassic beds give a good 
base for the correlation. In spite of the limited nature of their fauna, the separate | 
areas have yielded several characteristic species in common. It is probable, how- 
ever, that the topmost layers of the division (which in Yorkshire contain a long 
Belemnite allied to Bel. Owentt, Pratt.) are wanting in most, if not in all, of the: 
Lincolnshire sections through the overlapping of the Spilsby sandstone. 
D. Zone of Bel. lateralis, Phil—tThis zone deserves close consideration because 
of the recently-discovered analogy between it and the ‘Upper Volga’ beds of 
Russia, and because of the doubts which exist as to its precise age. At Speeton it 
has yielded certain fossils which have been supposed to be Portlandian forms, thus 
bearing out its stratigraphical position; but on the other hand it has also yielded 
numerous species usually referred to the Lower Cretaceous or Neocomian epoch. 
In Lincolnshire the zone comprises both the Spilsby sandstone and the Claxby 
ironstone, which, contrary to the accepted practice, and in spite of their lithological 
difference, should be thus united, on the palzontological evidence. The Claxby 
ironstone may be correlated with the upper beds of the zone at Speeton as low as: 
D 4,” and the Spilsby sandstone with the lower beds. The zone contains a more 
numerous and varied fauna in Lincolnshire than in Yorkshire. 
1 On the Subdivisions of the Speeton Clay: Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc. xlv. p. 575. 
2 These letters and figures are those used for distinguishing the different zones: 
in the above-cited paper on the Speeton Clays. 
ak 
