524 Reviews — Horace B. Woodicard — Loiver Oolitic Rocks. 



The Kemble Beds are not seen in the Minchinhampton Quarries, 

 the highest beds there visible he regards as belonging to the " White 

 Limestone." 



Although palseontological evidence is not a certain guide for fixing 

 horizons in the Great Oolite, it is probable that in North Oxfordshire 

 the Great Oolite Series, as it is observed to rest on the Chipping 

 Norton Limestone, does not present precisely the same basement 

 beds throughout. About Chipping Norton itself there seems to be 

 a definite line and a thorough physical break at the base of the 

 Great Oolite, and this is further evidenced by the occurrence of the 

 " rift bed," vehere a clay with Bathonian fossils fills up cracks in 

 the limestone of Inferior Oolite age. In this district also the 

 equivalents of the Stonesfield Slate may be observed to occur, as, 

 for instance, in the famous cutting at Langton Bridge. This section 

 seems to corroborate Mr. Walford's recent discoveries at Stonesfield, 

 which go to prove that the Stonesfield Slate is not the actual base 

 of the Great Oolite in that area, as some sort of limestone, with 

 clay seams, presenting on the whole the aspect of the Great Oolite, 

 is found to occur beneath the slate bed. 



Keverting once more to the Forest Marble, with its locally 

 developed Bradford Clay, the author considers that, in spite of the 

 varying nature of its particular character, when taken as a whole, 

 it forms a fairly well-marked division, extending from the coast of 

 Dorset to the neighbourhood of Buckingham. For this division the 

 name " Brad ford ian " is adopted. 



It is admitted, however, that shelly limestones of similar character 

 occur apparently on different horizons in the Great Oolite Series of 

 Northampton, Eutland, and Lincoln. Here the divisions were 

 originally made out by Prof. Judd and the late Samuel Sharp, and 

 are as follows : — 



Great Oolite Clay. Great Oolite Limestone. Tipper Estuarine Series. 



Amongst the fossils of the Upper Estuarine Mr. Woodward, we 

 observe, includes Paludina. Without doubt this genus might very 

 well be expected to occur in Bathonian Estuarine Beds, since Palu- 

 dina scotica abounds in the Loch Statfin Group (" infra Oxfordian "). 

 Yet there had been no previous mention of Paludina in Sharp's lists, 

 so that it would be interesting to know on what authority this genus 

 is quoted. As the Bathonian Beds are traced towards the Humber, 

 the evidence favours the view that there is but one stratigraphical 

 division, representing the Upper Estuarine Series, the Great Oolite 

 Limestone, and the Great Oolite Clay. 



The Cornbrash naturally terminates the series of Lower Oolitic 

 Rocks, although the author observes that there is no palseontological 

 break in the South of England or elsewhere between the Cornbrash 

 and the Oxfordian Series ; since in the Kellaways Eock we find, 

 more or less abundantly, some of the characteristic fossils of the 

 Cornbrash. As a proof of the solidarity of the Bathonian Series we 

 would point out that Am. discus, figured on page 432 as a Cornbrash 

 fossil, is also quoted from beds as low down as the Stonesfield Slate. 



