74 A. R. Hor wood— Upper Trias of Leicestershvre. 



forms a long tract on the west not more tlian two miles in breadlli, 

 forminp^ a good feature, the sandstones giving rise to scarps, whilst 

 the Red Marl occupies the rest of the district to the east. On the 

 soutli-west beds of sandstone form marked features, which also give 

 rise to bold escarpments, whilst the Red Marl itself constitutes 

 a uniform plateau with little or no variation in heights. There are 

 few exposures in the niai'ls, which on the extreme east are covered by 

 a mantle of Boulder-clay and sands. The River Sence and the Sence 

 Brook, however, cut down to the lower parts of the Red Marl, and 

 a good deal of alluvium fills the valleys to the south. The altitucU; 

 over most of this ground rises uniformly above 300 feet, and in some 

 parts to over 400, rarelj^ sinking below 250. A ridge of hills is 

 formed by the Orton Sandstone stx'iking north-west and south-east, 

 and another ridge meets it at right angles from Market Bosworth. 



The surface of the Bunter was apparently much eroded before the 

 deposition of the Lower Keuper which lies in hollows of the pebble 

 beds, and abuts the ridges unconformably. Both the Red Marl and 

 Lower Keuper Sandstone respectively overlap the Bunter, and the 

 former the latter in this district. There is a noticeable thinning out 

 of the Bunter from west to east, and also of the Lower Keuper 

 Sandstone. The Red Marl seems to thicken in this direction, however. 

 The pre-Triassic surface in this area (and jSTo. 3, to which the 

 following remarks also apply) shows that Trias rests on rocks older 

 than the Coal-measures in many places, indicating concealed ridges 

 of Charnian and Cambrian beds between Warwickshire and Cham- 

 wood Forest. In this way we should expect to find evidence of 

 undulation in the overlying strata and of flexures, but they are not 

 clearly indicated unless it be where the sandstones about Orton crop 

 out and give rise to a series of sinuous outcrops. Molyneux noticed 

 years ago in the neighbourhood of Burton-on-Trent the undulatory 

 bedding of the Red Marl in that direction, so that there are probably 

 similar features hitherto unrevealed in this area. The existence of 

 strain sliadows in the grits and quartzites of the Permian breccias 

 of this district, as Brown suggested, indicates their derivation from 

 folded rocks. 



Borings at Sapcote Freeholt and Elmesthorpe and at Market 

 Bosworth reveal the presence of Cambrian rocks similar to the 

 Nuneaton Series, so that a ridge striking north-west and south-east 

 extends between that point and Charnwood Forest, cutting out the 

 Coal-measures which over this area were deposited only in little 

 shallow basins as at Elmesthorpe and to the south-east and north-west 

 of Rugby. The existence of Stockingford Shales at Crown Hill, as 

 proved in the boring at 800 odd feet, shows tliat another ridge sets in 

 in that direction, and probably the syenites of Croft, Enderby, etc., 

 are intrusive through the same beds. They moreover overlie 

 a south-easterly extension of the pre-Cambrian rocks of Charnwood 

 Forest, which extend southwards as far as Orton and Bletchley, 

 if not further south. Thus both pre-Triassic and Triassic rocks south 

 and south-east of Charnwood Forest are like the Coal-measures banked 

 against ridges of Charnian or Nuneaton older rocks, or deposited in 

 hollows in their numerous ramifications. 



