374 Reports and Proceedings — 



The author referred to a shaft sunk at Kingsthorpe, near North- 

 ampton, in 1836, and also to a boring at the London and North- 

 Western Eailway Station about ten years later. At these spots the 

 beds beneath the Liassic series consisted of sandstones and marls, 

 and were considered to be of Triassic age. 



Palaeozoic rocks were met with in two borings undertaken by the 

 Northampton Water Company, who attempted to reach the Water- 

 stones by piercing the upper beds of the Trias. The first boring 

 was situated between the sites of the two previous investigations, 

 on the Kettering road, near the town. The Upper, Middle and 

 Lower Lias here attain a thickness of 738 feet, and below them a 

 series of conglomerates, sandstones and marls rested upon an eroded 

 surface of a Carboniferous dolomite which passed into limestone 

 crowded with characteristic fossils. The beds above the dolomite 

 are not true Trias, but may represent local deposits of that age ; 

 46 feet of Carboniferous strata were drilled, and the boring was 

 discontinued at 851 feet. 



The second boring was at Gayton, five miles south-west of 

 Northampton. The Middle and Lower Lias were 581 feet in 

 thickness, and were succeeded by the White Lias and Rhgetic shales, 

 the latter containing the black shales and bone-bed. The Trias was 

 here discovered, but only 60 feet in thickness, the Water-stones 

 being absent. Then followed 20 feet of littoral beds containing 

 fragments of Carboniferous Limestone (from which more than 20 

 species of fossils were named by Mr. E. Etheridge, F.R.S.), resting, 

 at 699 feet, upon an eroded surface of Carboniferous Limestone, 

 dipping at an angle of 45°, but in what direction was not ascer- 

 tained. The beds between this point and 889 feet consisted of a 

 series of limestones and dark shales 79 feet, grey sandstones and 

 grits 40 feet, red marls and sandstones 71 feet. The last fossils were 

 observed at 889 feet. The boring was continued to a depth of 944 

 feet. The last 105 feet was composed of coarse red sandstones and 

 marls with several bands of hard grits. These grits had been 

 examined microscopically by Prof. Bonney, whose notes were given. 

 The above sei'ies may represent the Old Red Sandstone, or may be 

 only a local development of the lower beds of the Carboniferous ; 

 however, their materials have probably been derived from a mass of 

 granitoid rocks belonging to some of the most ancient in the Archsean 

 series. Saline water was met with in both borings. 



A description was also given of an unsuccessful boring for coal at 

 Orton, near Kettering. Beneath the Lias clays, 666 feet in thickness, 

 the White Lias and Rhsetic were discovered, followed by a sandstone 

 and breccia resting upon an eroded surface of a quartz-felsite at 715 

 feet. The boi'ing was discontinued at a depth of 789 feet in this 

 rock. The quartz-felsite had been examined by Prof. Bonney, who 

 expressed an opinion that it was similar to rocks of the volcanic 

 group of Charnwood Forest, 25 miles to the north-east. The old 

 land surface had thus been proved at the three borings, at Gayton 

 dipping rapidly, and probably being the edge of a syncline, in which 

 coal may yet be discovered to the south or south-west, beneath tlie 

 overlying Mesozoic formations. 



