316 Revieics — The Geological Survey — 



III. — Memoirs of the Geological Survey (England and Wales). 

 The Geology of the Country round Oxford. By T. I. Pocock, 

 M.A.; with contributions by H. B. Woodward, F.R.S., and G. W. 

 Lamplugh, F.Pt.S. London : Wyman & Sons, 1908. Price 2s. 3r/. ; 

 price of quarter-sheet Is. 6d. 



THE Ordnance Survey of Enghand has published a quarter-sheet 

 having Oxford for a centre, with topography revised up to 1902. 

 The Board of Agriculture desire to give notice of a colour-printed 

 special geological map of Oxford and district, of which the memoir is 

 an explanation. This special sheet includes Abingdon, Eynsham, 

 Islip, Brill, and Great Milton. The superficial deposits have been for 

 the first time represented. "They include the broad alluvial tracts 

 of Ot Moor and of the Thames and its tributaries ; also the valley- 

 gravels, and certain tracts of plateau- gravel regarded as Glacial Drift. 

 Details are given of these deposits, and in connection with them the 

 development of the rivers and origin of the scenery are discussed. 

 The various Jurassic and Cretaceous rocks are also described, and there 

 are notes on the economic products and water-supply, with records of 

 deep borings." 



The original Geological Survey was conducted by Messrs. Hull, 

 Whitaker, Polwhele, and others during the years 1857 to 1863, and 

 published on two separate sheets, of which the northern belonged to 

 Banbury and the southern to Abingdon. The country was resurveyed 

 by the late J. H. Blake and the authors of the present memoir, which 

 has been published under the direction of J. J. H. Teall, D.Sc, F.R.S. 

 The preparation of the memoir was entrusted to Mr. Pocock, who has 

 dealt very fully with the Pleistocene and Recent deposits. The 

 chapters dealing with the Jurassic rocks have been partly written by 

 Mr. Woodward, those on the Lower Cretaceous rocks have been 

 contributed by Mr. Lamplugh, and that on the Upper Cretaceous rocks 

 is based on the published observations of Mr. Jukes-Browne. 



The general history of the Middle and Upper Oolitic rocks of 

 England by Mr. Woodward formed, it will be remembered, the fifth 

 volume of "The Jurassic Rocks of Britain," published in 1895 and 

 reviewed in the Geological Magazine for 1896. In that volume the 

 Jurassic rocks of the neighbourhood of Oxford naturally came in for 

 their share of attention, and full justice was then done to this 

 important subject. But the opportunity afforded by the publication of 

 an entirely new map, with Oxford as centre, has been utilized by the 

 Geological Survey for the production of a special memoir. 



There are many reasons to justify this course ; for, apart from the 

 celebrity of the ancient city as a seat of learning and as the nursery 

 of some of the earliest English geologists, its situation in the heart of 

 a great number of Mesozoic formations has served to render Oxford 

 classic ground in the annals of geology. There is a charming variety 

 within the area delineated, and the introduction of superficial features, 

 such as Alluvium, Yalley-gravel, and Plateau- gravel, in a region 

 so admirably sculptured bj' atmospheric agencies, has enabled the 

 chartographer to produce one of the brightest geological maps that has 

 hitherto been published. Most of the Mesozoic formations are repre- 

 sented within the area, though none occupy any great extent of surface 



