66 A. C. G. Cameron — Kellmoays Beds near Bedford. 



VI. — On the Continuity of the Kellawats Beds over extendkd 

 Areas near Bedford, and on the Extension of the Fuller's 

 Earth Works at Woburn. 



Ey A. C. G. Cameron ; 



of Her Majesty's Geological Survey.^ 



[Printed by permission of the Director-General of the Geological Survey.] 



"["AUEING late years, by the opening of new sections, fresh 

 JL/ information has been obtained of the geology of different 

 parts of the country, and several fine excavations, the result of 

 railway enterprise, have afforded great sections of the Kellaways 

 beds in localities v/here only conceptions of them previously pre- 

 vailed. Gaps have been filled up, and the continuity of the beds 

 over extended areas confirmed. The principal revelations come 

 from the Hull and Barnsley, and from the Swindon and Cirencester 

 railways, opened respectively about 1881 and 1883, and the works 

 now in progress in connexion with the widening of the main line 

 at Oakley, near Bedford. There are records too of deep sinkings 

 and borings, away from the outcrop, that indicate an area for the 

 Kellaways as extensive as that of the Oxford Claj' itself — and in 

 the Midlands a more than usual thickness is reported; the Bletchley 

 boring of 1886 specially indicating this. 



From Wiltshire to the bold cliffs of Gristhorp and Scarborough 

 Castle, fvlong the great sweep of Oxford Clay, this immense sand- 

 bank — if it is such — is well enough indicated, and, when hidJen 

 beneath the Fens, the Humber flat, or the Drift, is unquestionably 

 accounted for. 



Probably the earliest reference to the Kellaways comes from 

 Boston, in Lincolnshire, where, in 1783," the Oxford Clay was 

 penetrated 470 feet, and then sand, to a depth of 8 feet, when the 

 boring was abandoned as the water which then rose proved to be salt. 

 About that time, too, William Smith observed at Kellaways 

 Bridge, in Wiltshire, a stone being quarried for road-metal that 

 " occurred in irregular concretions, the exterior aspect of which is 

 brown and sandy, the interior being harder and of a bluish colour. 

 It consists almost entirely of a congeries of organic remains. The 

 beds of clay which cover this rock abound in selenite, and below are 

 beds of clay again." 



The late Mr. Bristow informed me that there is no Kellaways 

 Eock now at Kellaways, it having been all quarried away at its 

 outcrop, for road-stone, years ago. Local stones were much more 

 used in olden times than now, owing to the diflficnlty of transporting 

 road-metal ; thus the rock at Kellaways was then used for that 

 purpose. 



Briefly reviewing the past literature of this formation we find 

 thnt, owing to the absence of sections along its course and the 

 difiSculty in consequence in tracing it, it was alluded to as being of 



1 An abstract of this paper was read in Section C, British Association, Cardiff, 1891. 



2 I'hil. Trans, vol. xvi. p. 183 (1785j. 



