168 Notices of Memoirs — Lias of Fenny Compton. 



in great abundance. The quartzites and altered grits constitute the 

 mountainous country in Kimberley, and are interstratified with red 

 and yellow sandstones, conglomerates, and grits. 



Dykes of felstone, of later age than the Metamorphic rocks, are 

 also met with. No precious metals were discovered, but Mr. Hard- 

 man believes in their discovery being probable in this series. 



The Keport is accompanied by sixteen geological views, and a very 

 good map. 



II. — The Lias of Fenny Compton, Warwickshire. 



MR. THOMAS BEESLEY, F.O.S., has just issued this paper 

 with additions and corrections to the end of 1885. The author 

 describes the situation of Fenny Compton as a little station on the 

 Great Western and East and West Junction Railways, on the War- 

 wickshire side of the boundary between that county and those of 

 Oxford and Northampton, eight miles from Banbury and twelve 

 from Leamington, and at an elevation of nearly 400 feet above the 

 sea. He points to the Burton Hills, whose bold escarpment forms so 

 pleasing a feature in the landscape, as the extremity of the Marlstone 

 promontory which stretches from the Cherwell valley into the Lower 

 Lias bay of Warwickshire. He then directs attention to the sources 

 of the Learn, the Cherwell, and the Nene, flowing respectively to 

 the Severn, Thames, and Ouse, which sources are all within a circle 

 of one mile radius, in the high ground above the Marlstone escarp- 

 ment of Northamptonshire, a short distance east of the Burton Hills. 

 The railway at Fenny Compton passes for nearly three-quarters of 

 a mile through a cutting which exposes a section of the lowest zone 

 of the Middle Lias, which, with the exception of those on the Dorset- 

 shire and Yorkshire coasts, is probably the most extensive to be met 

 with in England. The zone of Ammonites Jamesoni which occurs 

 at Fenny Compton is, with the two others next above it, referred to 

 the Lower Lias in the maps and memoirs of the Geological Survey 

 of England; but, under the circumstances, the author prefers the con- 

 tinental arrangement. Proceeding southwards upon the East and 

 West Junction line, the banks rise rapidly, exposing a bluish-black 

 shale, fine in texture and rather marly. With one doubtful exception, 

 none of the Ammonites of the Lower Lias have been found there. 

 Some geologists have attributed this bed, and a good deal above it, to 

 the " Raricostatus zone" of the Lower Lias, but Professor Tate, who 

 had carefully examined it, agreed with the author that there was an 

 error in the conclusion. 



The bed soon presents unmistakable Middle Lias characteristics in 

 the form of parallel lines of pale grey or reddish flattened nodules. 

 They are much more calcareous than the clay in which they are 

 embedded, and contain a notable amount of phosphoric acid, chiefly 

 combined with lime. There are five lines of conspicuous nodules 

 in the 40 feet of shale. The lower nodules, like the shale in which 

 they lie, are rather poor in fossils, though both become richer in 

 higher ground. The author possesses a small one containing on its 

 surface 50 specimens belonging to more than 20 species, one of which 



