TRANSACTIONS OF SECTION C. 615 



8. The coloration of the Trias is original ; that is to say, the red colour, 

 imparted by peroxide of iron, was deposited on sediments under water-level. 

 But it is not continuous everywhere with the bedding. ' Catenary ' bedding is 

 thus illusory. In only one case has an anticlinal fold of red-coloured marl been 

 noticed underlying a grey band, but, on the other hand, synclinal folds are not 

 uncommon, as in catenary bedding, the grey (heavier) marl lying in the hollows. 



9. The great thickness of the Bunter pebble beds is a proof of a subsiding area 

 at the opening of the Trias and of conditions suitable to a gradually widening and 

 deeper delta area. 



Normally delta deposits lie at an angle of about 45 degrees with the river bed, 

 but as they are deposited in a subsiding area these beds describe an angle of 

 45 degrees and become horizontal. Thus the absence of delta bedding (not every- 

 where, for it occurs in Bunter, Lower and Upper Keuper here and there) in the 

 Trias is proof that it was deposited in a subsiding area. 



The 'radial dip' around submerged areas is due to the 'angle of rest' which 

 normally produces inclined beds. The winding of the course of a river like the 

 Mississippi, producing wide alluvial plains, would account for the Red Marl being 

 deposited much as in a lacustrine area. 



10. There is evidence from analogy of the ferruginous nature of the Upper 

 Coal Measures, Permian, and Trias of the delta origin of the red marls. 



11. The present horizontally, the littoral or marginal dip around the hills 

 (e.g., Charnwood Forest), with the south-easterly dip (as in the Coal Measures 

 and Permian formation), is original. 



Trias reaches a height of 880 feet on Bardon Hill and is apparently in situ. 

 Hence the elevated tracts must originally have been under water. 



Moreover, the following facts may be noted in connection with submerged 

 hills under the Triassic covering : — 



(i) The Trias is horizontal away from the older hills, as at Hathern, Silcby, &c. 



(ii) It is horizontal within old gullies and fiords within the islandic area as 

 well as over ' saddlebacks ' (anticlinal folds in older rocks, as at Longcliffe. 

 Enderby), as at Groby, Swithland, Mount Sorrel. 



(iii) There is an absence of faults of any magnitude. A very slight one 

 affects the Rheetics at Glen Parva. The older one at Bardon has no relation to 

 the Trias. 



(iv) It occurs filling fissures at great heights, as at .Siberia Quarry, Bardon 

 Hill. 



12. Only the sandstones or ' skerries ' are rippled, not the marls, with ripples 

 S.W. to N.E. in direction; that is, the ridges run N.W. by S.E. generally, the 

 force moving the wind and wave thus coming from the S.W. This is to be 

 noted all round Charnwood Forest. 



13. The screes are very largely to the S.W. of the submerged older rocks 

 which they cover, and from which (as on sea-coasts dunes are formed with screes 

 forming at the foot of cliffs) they are derived. 



14. The sandstones thin out and disappear eastward (as in the Lower Keuper), 

 the marls westward, and the sandstones or skerries are chiefly on present hilly 

 ground (as in the past). 



15. The surface features of the old elevated rocks are largely original, where 

 not covered by the Trias. The crags of High Sharpley, Bioombriggs, &c, are 

 quite untouched. The structure of the older formation can be distinctly made out 

 as at Hanging Rocks. Blackbrook is only an emptied Triassic fiord. 



16. Desert conditions are confined to the marginal contact of the Red Marl 

 with certain older rocks (chiefly syenites as at Croft and Mount Sorrel), and 

 this occurs at the same level indicating its merely local phase. Wind-polished 

 recks occur to the west and north of Castle Hill, Mount Sorrel. 



17. There is an absence of desert conditions in the surrounding area— i.e., away 

 from the old rocks. Only in one instance has an anticlinal fold of Red Marl, 

 simulating a dune been discovered, as at Sileby. 



18. The beds of gypsum and rock-salt are continuous in a linear direction, 

 and are horizontal, which must be due to aqueous deposition, and brought about 

 during the greater lagoon phase at the close of the epoch, or the contemporary 

 marginal lagoon phase during early periods of the delta formation. 



19. There is a gradual gradation of the Keuper into the Rhastics and so into 

 the Lias, marine conditions commencing with the Rhastics. 



