Geological Society of London, 473 



18. " Some Eecent Sections near Nottingham." By the Eev. A. 

 Irving, B.A., B.Sc., F.G.S. 



The author describes a section of the strata exposed during the 

 recent construction of a railway line from Carlton, three miles to the 

 east of Nottingham, through Daybrook, to Kimberley. 



The section commences in the Upper Keuper ; the Lower Keuper 

 (Waterstones) are penetrated at a short distance from the village of 

 Gedling. These beds are well shown as the cutting enters the 

 plateau known as the " Mapperley Plains," and consist of a series of 

 alternating red marls and sandstones. One of the sandstone-beds 

 is nearly white ; and hollows varying in size from that of a pea to 

 that of a fowl's egg are of frequent occurrence. These are prob- 

 ably due to the dissolving out of small calcareous concretions. 

 This bed occurs high up in the Waterstone series. The total thick- 

 ness of the Lower Keuper may be estimated at about 100 feet. At 

 about one quarter of the height from the bottom ripple-marks are 

 abundant ; sun-cracks, rain-pittings, and pseudomorphs also occur ; 

 but as yet no footprints have been found. 



The line then crosses about 3 miles of Bunter country. In the 

 upper portion of the series the pebble-beds appear to be wanting, 

 and their place is taken by a series of thinly-laminated, micaceous, 

 whitish, false-bedded sandstones. These are succeeded by marine 

 conglomeratic beds, which extend for some distance. A mile further 

 west the sandstones become softer, and assume a more mottled ap- 

 pearance, which they retain all the way to the Leen Valley, where 

 the base of the Bunter is hidden by alluvium. 



The cutting then passes through an outlier of Lower Bunter and 

 Upper " Permian " Sandstone. Two faults occur at this spot, by 

 the first of which the Permian is thrown down several yards ; whilst 

 by the second it is let down below the level of the rail way. 



Near the village of Watnall a tunnel pierces the Magnesian 

 Limestone and the Coal-measures. This junction is distinctly 

 unconformable, the Permian formation being nearly horizontal, 

 and the Coal-measures dipping at an angle of 15° to the north-east.- 

 At the western end of the tunnel another fault lets down the 

 Permian 12 feet ; the Coal-measures are consequently lost to sight, 

 until again brought up by another fault on the other side of the 

 village. The author considers that the Permian strata are closely 

 related to the overlying Trias, and are unconformable to the Coal- 

 measures. 



Here and there patches of drift were met with, but almost en- 

 tirely in the Bunter country, owing to the friable nature of that 

 deposit. These patches are probably the remnants of a drift once 

 more widely spread. 



Traces of drift on the Keuper country are remarkably few. Two 

 patches have been preserved by a fault on the north-eastern side of 

 Nottingham. 



In a cutting on a new line of the Midland Eailway it is found 

 that the Avicida-contorta shales have been removed by evident 

 glacial action, and redeposited among other materials on the planed 



