440 jS. B. Woodtcavd — A Small Anticline near Bedford. 



of river gravel and sand ; tlie whole being opened np to a deptli of 

 10 or 12 feet. Prior to the excavation there was no indication 

 of the disturbed strata, althougli they actually reached the surface. 

 The arch, however, was coated with Great Oolite Clay, which had 

 been disarranged superficially and intermixed with gravel. 

 W. E. 



Soil and 



gravel, etc. 

 Cornbrash. 

 Great Oolite 



Clay. 



Great Oolite 

 Limestone. 



Section at Clai-ham, north of Bedford. 



E. Brown loam and stouy loam and clay, and irregular 



pockets of brown and white gravel intermixed with C. 



D. Marly and flaggy limestone with Ostrea flahelloides 



C. Dark-blue clay 



feet. 



B. Grey limestones 



A. Marly clay with Ostrea Sowerhyi. 



Marls and limestones (seen in pit, fiu'ther south) . 



2 

 up to 3 



5 to C> 



The Great Oolite Clay, less disturbed on the flanks of the anticline, 

 was thinner than that exposed by the Bedford waterworks, south 

 of Clapham : an attenuation possibly resulting from the flexure. 

 The limestones below were bent into an arch and slightly broken, 

 while the lowest strata of marly clay with Ostrea ISoioerhyi were 

 much squeezed up. The Cornbrash, a flaggy limestone with Ostrea 

 flahelloides, was seen at the base of the pit on the eastern side of the 

 arch, and traces of sands (resembling those of the Kellaways Beds) 

 were noticeable a little distance away on the western side. 



The adjacent deposit, a white gravel, with brown decalcified 

 portions resting irregularly on a ' piped ' surface of it, was made 

 uj) mainly of Oolite limestone, together with rolled Oxfordian and 

 other fossils, quartz, quartzite, jasper, flint pebbles, and subaugular 

 and angular flints. It yielded also a partially decomposed block of 

 rhomb-porphyry, evidently derived from the Boulder-clay which 

 covers the higher grounds ; and the occurrence of this Scandinavian 

 rock is of interest, as hitherto no example has been recorded south 

 of Norfolk.^ A portion of a molar of Mephas primigeuitis was like- 

 wise obtained from the gravel — the age of which is evidently 

 subsequent to the Boulder-clay of the district. 



Witli regard to the age and origin of the small anticline, there is 

 no particular evidence. It must have been formed prior to the 



1 See Professor P. F. Kendall : " Eighth Report of Committee on Erratic Block* 

 of the British Isles," Rep. Brit. Assoc, for 1903. 



