A. R. Horwood — Upper Trias of Leicestershire. 113 



which the most interesting sections are here mentioned. In addition 

 the Red Marl is largely used for building purposes, brick- and tile- 

 making in the Soar Valley, and it has been possible for the first time 

 to indicate the correlations of these sections and the position of the 

 beds in the sequence. Some of the most important sections in the 

 Red Marl are to be seen in this vicinity right up to the Tea-green 

 Marl and overlying Rhaetic beds. A considerable influence has been 

 brought to bear upon the configuration of the Red Marl by the river- 

 systems, which owe their origin in this area to the Charnwood range, 

 and the River Soar to the east is responsible for the development of 

 the fine series of sections just mentioned. 



In the extreme north-west at Grracedieu the basal breccia of the 

 Lower Keiiper is seen to overlie the limestone, unconformably, the 

 latter dipping north at 6-10 degrees. There is a limestone breccia at 

 the top in a sandy red matrix, which between here and Griffy Dam 

 is much more brecciated than to the north-west. Between Spring 

 Boroughs and Blackbrook the Lower Keuper Sandstone overlaps the 

 Charnian rocks for a distance of half a mile. It runs up the Black- 

 brook Valley, and is in turn overlaid by Red Marl which occupies 

 a broad strip in the centre of the valley, dividing the forest into two 

 halves more or less along the anticlinal axis. At Finny Hill Lodge 

 this tract is nearly a mile in width. In these Red Marls there is 

 a bed of white sandstone near the base, which probably represents the 

 white skerry band at Bardon Hill, and those at Copt Oak and Charley. 

 About White Horse Wood or south of it these marls with an inter- 

 bedded sandstone are seen, and further north a bed of white sandstone 

 has been found to contain galena included in Carboniferous Limestone, 

 and derived from some of the inliers to the north-west. There used 

 to be several old marl-pits in this district in the valley in a lane 

 opposite the wood with a floor of fine light-coloured sandstone, which 

 dipped towards the valley (west) at 8°— 10°. 



Thirty years ago Shipman discovered galena in the Lower Keuper 

 Sandstone at Shepshed in cuttings for the Charnwood Forest Railway, 

 1 mile south-west of the village, in a coarse red sandstone under the 

 bridge over the road from Shepshed to Blackbrook. The ore was in 

 pebbles and rolled lumps of impure Carboniferous Limestone, and 

 formed 50-60 per cent of the matrix, which resembled the 

 Dimminsdale type where galena occurs in situ. It was formerly 

 worked here. 



A mile to the east the Lower Keuper Sandstone thins out. In the 

 boring to the north (District I), at Piper Wood, No. 1 (230 O.D.), 

 Carboniferous Limestone and Millstone Grit were met with, with no 

 Red Marl or sandstone, but in 'No. 2 there was 46 ft. 6 in. Probably 

 the galena came from some such concealed ridge of limestone, and 

 doubtless the Lower Keuper was derived locally largely from Bunter 

 pebble-beds and the Millstone Grit, the grains in each having some 

 considerable resemblance. 



Further east, at Longcliffe Quarries, Red Marl lies horizontally 

 upon the upturned edges of the syenite, with green and white skerry 

 bands. ^ In the top quarry there is much more Red Marl (10-20 feet) 

 with an interbedded band of gritty brecciated sandstone or sandy 



DECADE v.— VOL. X.— NO. III. 8 



