A. R. Horwood — Upper Trias of Leicestershire. 83 



through which it finds its way to the surface near the inn. The main 

 difference lies in the absence of sulphate of lime in the Shearsby 

 waters, which is accounted for by the strong- smell of sulphuretted 

 hydrogen it possesses, caused by the action of iron in the Lias on the 

 gypsum. Mr. Stooke recommended to the Board in place of this site 

 for a boring and supply of water a spot 5 miles from Hinckley," but 

 in his paper refers to one 3^ miles south-west, near the White Stone, 

 Attleborough, where the water was obtained- from a well and heading 

 in the waterstones. A section here shows 60 feet Trias, 70 feet Cambrian 

 Shales, half-way between Chilvers Coton and Burton Hastings. 



The whole district around Hinckley is much covered by Chalky 

 Boulder-clay as far as Stapleton and Barwell, and no solid rocks 

 outcrop anywhqre in the district, so that it is only from borings that 

 information hereabouts is available. The valley being 60 feet below 

 the usual level one would nevertheless expect some beds to crop out; 

 A pit to the west near the Watling Street is in Boulder-clay and Red 

 Marls, but presents nothing of interest. A boring at Elmesthorpe ' 

 (300 O.D.) showed 68 feet Drift, 120 feet Keuper Marl, 330 feet 

 Keuper Sandstone, 980 feet said by Plant to be Coal-measures, but 

 Professor Brown gives the following reading : — 



ft. in. 

 Upper Keuper Marls -with gypsum . 470 



Conglomerate or breccia . . a few in Cheshire 

 Coal-measures ..... 210 5 

 Stockingford Shales . . . . 974 



1654 5 



He further found an outcrop of the Stockingford Shales on the 

 Leicester and Birmingham line 1,450 j'ards east of the station, 2 miles 

 north-east of the above boring, the shales being struck in a field on 

 the north side of the line at a depth of 24 feet. He regards the 

 Barrow Hill ' Greenstone ' as a Warwickshire diorite, and thinks that 

 the bosses of igneous rock at Sapcote, Enderby, and Croft are intrusions 

 in the shales and associated rocks. It is possible the slate underlying 

 the syenite in Marston's Pit, Enderby, not now visible, is not 

 Swithland Slate but Stockingford Shale, to which it has some 

 resemblance. The occurrence of the shales on the east of the River 

 Soar, though at a great depth in the Crown Hill borings, would seem 

 to favour this view. 



These facts show how irregular and varied was the floor upon 

 which the Trias was deposited, and how ancient were the peaks 

 of intrusive rocks which appear here and there through this pre- 

 Carboniferous floor. 



At Stony Stanton, in the Bottom Pit, Keuper Marl lies in the 

 hollows of the syenite nearer the church (south side). A rather 

 decomposed mass of syenite forms a dome or saddle, and on either 

 side the Red Marl with green bands fills the troughs abutting against 

 the syenite with the green bands slightly uptui-ned, in contact at 

 the base, and for some distance into the Red Marl angular masses 

 of syenite have been included. The Red Marl is of a densely 



^ This is the Sapcote Freeholt boring. 



