_ November 1898. 
Peacock: Lincolnshire Naturalists in the Isle of Axholme. 337 
Asplentum ruta-muraria was growing on the south side as it is 
to-day, but A. ¢trzchomanes, which formerly grew there, and 
which still grows at Owston Ferry in Div. 1., was not observed 
on this occasion. 
For Geology, Mr. F. M. Burton, F.L.S., F.G.S., reports :— 
The town of Epworth stands on comparatively high ground 
in the midst of the Isle of Axholme, the name given to a tract 
of land in North-West Lincolnshire, West of the Trent, and 
enclosed by that river and the rivers Idle, Torne and Don. The 
whole of this area is composed of Triassic rocks which have 
undergone great denudation, and are covered up almost entirely 
by gravel, sand, pe and other alluvial deposits ; the only 
Cr E : 
P 
Orming islands o euper Marl, with gypseous bands at 
intervals, standing out from the surrounding waste. This 
§ypsum is met with on the surface at Epworth and Burnham, 
and a few other places, where it was formerly worked. In 
some parts it is fibrous and runs in thin veins, but in others it 
occurs in massive tabular blocks of great thickness and solidity. 
Old Leland, that laborious antiquary and careful observer of 
nature, born early in the 16th century, of whom one of his 
_ biographers said, ‘There was scarcely either cape or bay, 
haven, creek or pier, river or confluence of rivers, breaches, 
washes, lakes, meres, fenny waters, mountains, valleys, moors, 
heaths, forests, chaces, woods, cities, boroughs, castles, 
Principal manor places, monasteries and colleges, which he 
nad not seen, and noted a world of things very memorable,’ 
came into these parts and described in his own quaint way the 
very beds we are now considering: ‘The upper part of the Isle 
es 
thickness and sold for vii’ the lode; they lay on the ground 
lyke a smooth table and be bedded one flake under another, 
and at the bottom of the bedde of them be roughe stones to 
build: withal.’ 
These red marls, with gypsum bands, form the upper division 
of the Keuper Series, but the lower division—Sandstones or 
Waterstones—though not in evidence, being entirely covered up 
by alluvial deposits, are known to occur in the neighbourhood ; 
their presence being revealed by boring's in various localities, as 
at Wroot, Lindholme, and a few other places. 
It is to these beds of gypsum, which are in places of a _ 
Massive and concretionary character, forming buttresses strong . 
x 
