MM. Wilson and Quilier — Rhcetic Section at Wigston. 417 



tlie Ehsetic rocks of the adjoining counties of Nottingham and 

 Lincoln, or of Warwick and Grloucester, is the great apparent 

 uniformity in mineral character of these beds in this unweathered 

 section, and the absence of any hard beds, either of sandstone or 

 limestone, with the exception of a band of nodular limestone at the 

 top, and two or three seams of limestone nodules in the lower 

 portion of the series. Closer examination, however, enables us to 

 divide this mass of dark laminated shales into two groups: (1) a 

 Lower Series, A. contorta beds or Paper Shales, consisting of some 

 18ft. of black thinly-laminated, more or less fossiliferous shales; and 

 (2) an Upper Series, Upper Rhcetic Shales or White Lias, consisting 

 of about 22 ft. of blue thickly-laminated earthy unfossiliferous shales, 

 with occasional seams or scattered nodules of limestone ; and to 

 subdivide each of these members into the several beds indicated 

 in the above section. There is no true "Bone Bed," but at the 

 base of the Paper Shales we notice a thin, evanescent seam of 

 white sand, containing scattered teeth, scales, coprolites, and pebbles, 

 which may represent a Bone Bed occurring at a similar horizon 

 elsewhere. Comparing the lower portion of this section with the 

 incomplete Ehsetic section at the north end of the Spinney Hills, 

 Leicester, described by Mr. Harrison about eight years ago, we 

 note a general agreement in lithological character and organic 

 remains, except that at Wigston the Ehsetic Shales have apparently 

 a somewhat greater development.^ 



Although, at several horizons in the Paper Shales, we find the 

 dwarfed shells which specially characterize these rocks present in 

 numbers, the variety in species is hardly so great as might have 

 been expected, considering the ample facilities here given for their 

 examination. The " White Lias," as usual, at any rate in this 

 part of the country, is almost entirely destitute of organic remains. 

 The presence of that interesting little starfish Ophiolepis Damesii, 

 first found at Leicester by Mr. Harrison, was indicated by the cast 

 of a single ray ; but we have not been able to determine its exact 

 horizon. We have found several fishes, chiefly in weathered shales, 

 and badly preserved. They occur at a distinct horizon, viz. from 

 3' Q" to 3^ 9'^ above the base of the Paper Shales. Their identifica- 

 tion has not yet been made out. 



The junction of the Paper Shales with the underlying beds, the 

 " Tea-green marls " of Etheridge, is sharply defined, though the 

 line is level, and the two sets of beds are apparently conformable 

 to each other. On the other hand, these " Tea-green marls " imper- 

 ceptibly graduate down into gypsiferous red, green, and mottled 

 Keuper marls, having similar lithological characters. We have, 

 therefore, no hesitation whatever in adhering to the opinion here- 



1 We cannot, however, accept as correct Mr. Harrison's description of a band of 

 septariform nodules with Esther im, in situ, at so little as 10 feet from the base of the 

 Paper Shales. No such bed is now to be seen on the Spinney Hills and no analogous 

 bed, or Estherim, occiu- at this horizon at Wigston. The Ilhajtics on the Spinney Hills 

 are capped by glacial di-ift. We consider that the nodules referred to by Mr. 

 Harrison {loc. cit.) must have been displaced by glacial action from a higher level. 



DECADE ni. VOL. I. — NO. IX. 27 



