310 LINCOLNSHIRE NATURALISTS AT WOODHALL SPA. 
the Chalk series, a highly bituminous bed of shale gg Se 
sures. In this b 
to d muc s 
pe i In Dorsetshire—whence, from the village of Kimmeridge, 
e beds derive their name—these shales are so _ bituminous 
er they are occasionally used for fuel; and attempts have 
en made to obtain oil and other substahces from them. 
The thirst after coal in Lincolnshire has not, however, been 
altogether without its results, as, some years ago, a boring for it at 
Woodhall led to the discovery of the valuable saline well there, which 
is now so well known for its curative properties; a boon of far 
greater and wider worth than the finding of coal would have been, — 
had the search for it been successful. The Rev. J. Conway 
Walter, who so kindly and ably conducted the excursion, 
informs us that the properties of the spring were discovered 
when it welled up out of the borehole, and, spreading over the 
adjoining land, affected the cattle which drank of it. 
The clay is well exposed in some parts of this district in brick- 
pits and railway cuttings, swe Rene noe wee the exception of 
a disused pit filled with w. where several nodular masses of 
stone were met with, thickly rol with Serpula tetragona, and one 
of them having on its surface the impress of an ammonite too much 
worn for identification—and of another more ancient pit, said to 
have been excavated in Roman times, no kind of section was met 
with during the excursion. 
On crossing the heath and moorland, the burrowing of rabbits 
had occasionally turned up patches of fine pale-coloured sand, in 
parts slightly ferruginous, and having a considerable number of flints 
scattered about them; while, here and there, a few small erratics 
were seen, pointing to the influence of the ice action which has 5” ae 
materially altered the surface of this portion of the county. 
In connection with the ice drift, I should like to call the : 
attention of all interested in geology to the want of any 
Lincoln. — The Secretary of ‘the 
