218 Dr. C. CaUaimij — Glacial Clay on Cotte.m-olcl Plateait. 



Passing northwards up the valley, we come to Kingham, 4 miles 

 north of Shipton. Here is exposed a good section of oolite-gravel, 

 with interbedded seams of oolite-sand. The fragments are water- 

 worn. Scattered through the mass are some well-rounded pebbles 

 of quartz, quartzite, and quartzose grit, with some bits of ironstone. 

 Towards the top of the section a few of the quartzite pebbles have 

 their longer axes vertical. Two miles further up the valley, east of 

 Adlestrop station, there are arenaceous gravels, containing many 

 flints, some of them of large size. Near Evenlode, If miles due 

 north, is the boulder of Millstone-grit indicated on the Geological 

 Survey Map. Its dimensions are 20 by 14 by 14 inches. It is 

 well rounded. 



The well-known gravels of Moreton-in-the-Mai'sh are 2^ miles 

 further to the north-west. They lie near the water-parting of the 

 Evenlode and the Stour, at an elevation of about 425 feet above O.D. 

 The sandy matrix contains numerous large and small unworn flints 

 and well-rounded quartzite pebbles, with an inconspicuous proportion 

 of igneous and other rocks. Many of the flints and pebbles lie with 

 their longer axes vertical. The valley to the north of Moreton is 

 thickly strewn with similar materials. I also observed boulders of 

 Carboniferous Limestone, grey felsite or hornstone, and other erratics. 

 W. C. Lucy ' describes the gravels of this district, and he notes the 

 occurrence of other foreign derivatives, including white chalk and 

 red chalk. I have shown some of the latter to Mr. W. Whitaker, 

 and he admits the accuracy of the identification. 



The origin of the Moreton gravels has been discussed." Mr. S. S. 

 Buckman leans to the opinion that they were deposited by a river, 

 when the surface features of the country were widely different. The 

 abundance of flints, with a less proportion of white and red chalk, 

 would seem to point to a derivation from Lincolnshire or Yorkshire, 

 but it is difficult to conceive of a downward flow from that direction 

 to the Cotteswold Hills in later Tertiary times. This hypothesis 

 appears also to be inconsistent with the enormous abundance of 

 large unworn flints north of Moreton as compared with their 

 scarcity south of that point. Mr. T. Mellard Reade is disposed to 

 attribute the formation of the Moreton gravels to floating ice in the 

 Glacial Epoch. Some form of the ice-theory is, I think, necessary 

 to explain the facts. Ice in the Midland area moving southwards 

 might well be arrested by the projecting mass of the North Cottes- 

 wolds, and morainic matter would accumulate at the opening of thfr 

 Moreton gorge. 



The Tangley section also appears to me inexplicable except as the 

 product of ice-action. It lies on the summit of the ridge, and tha 

 materials could not have been river-borne in Glacial or post-Glacial 

 times. The clay is quite unlike an ordinary sediment : not only is- 

 lamination absent, but the two kinds of clay are intermixed in the 

 most irregular manner without being blended with each other. 

 They are both traversed by numerous slickensides, some of which 



1 Proc. Cotieswold Nat. Field Club, vol. v, pp. 71-142. 



2 Ibid., vol. xiv, pp. 111-118. 



