ON THE ERRATIC BLOCKS OF ENGLAND AND WALES. 87 



No'XTINGnAMSHIEE. 



The Committee has been favoured -with the following report from the Eev. 

 A. Irving, P.G.S., of the High School, Nottingham. 



1. The boulder and clay deposits herein referred to are scattered over higher 

 parts of the imdulating country of the parishes of Plumtreo, >Stanton-on-the- 

 "Wolds, Kegworth, and Widmerpool, in South Notts. The new line of rail- 

 way, along which they are exposed at present, may be traced on the map 

 running to the west of Plumtree, then converging towards the turnpike-road 

 from Plumtree to Over Broughton. The line runs for several miles near 

 and almost parallel to this road. 



2. The dimensions of the largest boulder measured are 4| x 2 x 1 feet. It 

 is of Lias limestone, and near the surface of the ground at the top of the hill 

 through which passes the cutting between Stanton and Plumtree. 



The smallest boulders are not bigger than a man's fist. 

 Quartzite pebbles of all sizes (as if from the Banter) also abound in the 

 boulder-deposits. 



3. Those of the Lias limestone are generally angular or only slightly sub- 

 angular. 



Those of MiLLstono-grit or Carboniferous limestone are generally rounded 

 very much. 



4. The direction of the longest axis of the largest boulder mentioned, 

 and of several others observed in the same section, was very nearly duo N. 

 and S. 



5. (a) The strice are numerous on certain boulders, but not on any very 

 great proportion of them. They are generally several inches in length, and 

 seldom exceed a lino in depth. 



{b) The striae are very variable with respect to the parts of the boulders 

 striated. 



(c) The striae are generally in the direction of the longest axes. 



6. (1) The boulders of Lias limestone, which greatly preponderate, are 

 derived, in all probability, from the Liassic strata of the immediate neighbour- 

 hood, upon which (as shown in the works of the tunnel at Stanton) the 

 boulders partly lie. (2) The nearest Millstone-grit is found at Castle Ben- 

 nington and Stanton-by-Dale, in Derbyshire, on opposite sides of the Trent 

 valley ; the former place 12 miles south of west, the latter 12 mUes north 

 of west from the deposits in which they now occur. (3) The nearest Car- 

 boniferous limestone which corresponds precisely with that of the boulders 

 is at TicknaU, in Derbyshire, about 18 miles distant south of west. 



8, The height of the group above the sea is about 200 feet. 



9. The extent of boulder and clay deposits is at least several square mUes, 

 if we include the vast accumulation of drift which caps the tops of aU the hills 

 about the district, and is exposed in the road-cuttings as well as on the rail- 

 way. In the cutting between Plumtree and Stanton the boulders are largest 

 and most numerous, and are mingled with an immense number of quartzite 

 pebbles, the whole being in some places so completely bound together as to 

 be almost conglomeratic. In the tunnel (near Stanton) 70 feet of a true 

 boulder-clay are passed through ; but in this the large (Lias) boulders occur 

 less frequently, and the pebbles are more thinly scattered. This tunnel 

 penetrates the hiU between Stanton and Bank House (Ord. map). The same 

 kind of clay-deposit (or drift) is cut through by the cutting close to Kowhac 

 Cover and by that near "Widmerpool New Inn. This clay is extremely 

 tenacious. 



