72 A, J. Pickering—Borings at Hinckley. 
It will be noticed that this boring commenced at the bottom of the 
sandy Drift series. The site being 83 feet below Messrs. Atkins’s 
boring, the Chalky Boulder-clay was not present. 
Beds 2 and 3 are the silty clays, and Beds 4, 5, and 6 are the 
Keuper Drift beds before mentioned. Below these the compact red 
marls of the Keuper were penetrated, and these continued with 
interbedded green marls and gypsum as far as the boring was carried. 
With the exception of indications of contemporaneous puckering in 
Bed 33 the whole of the cores were horizontally bedded. 
The absence of all trace of the Upper Keuper Sandstone (either in 
the sediment of the earlier portion of the boring, or in the cores) is 
a little remarkable, inasmuch as the site is little more than three- 
quarters of a mile from the boring at Messrs. Atkins Bros., where 
beds up to 7 feet in thickness were penetrated. The Holy Well 
boring,’ begun in 1875 a little farther east, also gave about 30 feet of 
Upper Keuper Sandstones; but at the Wharf boring,’ 1} miles west 
of the Holy Well and half a mile west of the Sketchley Dye Works, 
only 12 feet were present. 
This absence of the Upper Keuper Sandstone in the Sketchley 
borehole may be due to one of several causes. Firstly, this sandstone 
is known to be impersistent at its outcrop in many parts of the 
Midlands, and is liable in places to thin out, and elsewhere to be 
split up by beds of marl. There is evidence, too, that more than one 
band comes in at about this position in the Keuper Marl. Sometimes 
several bands may be present together in one district, while a little 
farther on one or other of these bands may thin out. Secondly, 
although present at the Holy Well and at Bond Street, it may have 
cropped out against the base of the Glacial deposits before reaching 
Sketchley. Thirdly, there may be a gentle syncline under Sketchley, 
by which the sandstone is carried down below the bottom of that 
boring. This third explanation is supported by the fact that between 
the Holy Well and Bond Street the base of the sandstone falls 
88 feet. If this fall is maintained it would carry the bed below the 
bottom of the Sketchley boring. 
It is to be noted that at the Holy Well the distance between the 
top of the Waterstones (= Lower Keuper Sandstone) and the bottom 
of the Upper Keuper Sandstone is 217 feet, whereas at the Wharf 
the distance is 396 feet. It is probable, therefore, that the Upper 
Keuper Sandstone of the Holy Well thins out or splits up before 
reaching the Wharf, and that the Upper Keuper Sandstone at the 
Wharf, 12 feet thick, is a higher band. 
An examination of the cores showed both the red and the green 
marls to be entirely devoid of organic remains. The green marls 
were throughout much harder and coarser-grained than the red, and 
portions were slightly calcareous. The red marls quickly decomposed 
on exposure; but the green marls showed little signs of weathering. 
The usual bands of skerry were entirely absent. 
The writer is indebted to Messrs. Atkins Bros. and to Messrs. A. E. 
Hawley & Co. for permission to watch the boring operations, to 
1 Rep. Brit. Assoc. for 1875, p. 136; for 1879, p. 160. 
2 Ibid. for 1882, p. 226; for 1883, p. 154; for 1887, p. 364. 
