

208 COOKE : WORK FOR LINCOLNSHIRE GEOLOGISTS. 



Geology ; and it is evident that but for the assistance it has 

 afforded, Geology could never have attained to the dignity of 

 a science. 



How essential fossil-knowledge is, many a capitalist has dis- 

 covered to his cost. In Lincolnshire alone, thousands of pounds 

 have been wasted in fruitless search for minerals in rocks, the very 

 fossils of which indicated that such minerals were nonexistent. And 

 it is not so many years ago that the discovery of the bituminous- 

 shales of the Kimmeridge led ill-informed speculators to spend thei 

 money in vain attempts to find the beds of the Coal Measures. 

 A knowledge of fossil-lore would have indicated to them not only 

 where coal might have been found, but also where it could not 

 possibly exist. What Lincolnshire is lacking at the present time is 

 a full and representative collection of the fossils of its rocks ; and all 

 help that may tend to the getting together of such a collection will 

 be gladly welcomed. The fossils of the Cornbrash, a formation 

 which is well developed along the eastern side of the cliffs near 

 Scopwick, Potter Han worth, Cherry Wilioughton and Sudbrook, are 

 most numerous and interesting ; and, as they have not yet been 

 systematically gathered, good work would be well repaid. 



The collection and careful recording of the Lias exposures in and 

 around Fillingham, Helmswell, Wilioughton and Glentworth would 

 be productive of valuable results, not only by adding to our know- 

 ledge of the fauna of the Lias formation, but also in assisting in the 

 correlation of horizons in the different localities, and in the tracing 

 out of the at present very* obscure line of demarcation between the 

 Middle and the Lower Lias. 



Our knowledge of the Middle Lias of North Lincolnshire, in the 

 vicinity of Winterton, Appleby and Barnetby, is not all that could be 

 desired ; one point in particular, having reference to the absence of 

 the characteristic fossil Ammonites margaritatus^ calls for special 

 investigation. 



In the Lincolnshire Kimmeridge Clays the fossil collector has 

 still much work to do. Of their reptilian fauna but little is known, 

 while the collection of their molluscs and cephalopods would be 

 valuable, as it would assist in the more exact determination of the 

 nature and position of the line of junction between this formation 

 and the subjacent Oxfordian. 



In the Pleistocene fauna of the river gravels much work remains 

 to be done. .The molars of Elephas primigenius have been found at 

 Coningsby in the gravels of the Bain ; and the Witham gravels at 

 Langworth have yielded Cervm elaphus and Bos primigenius ; but 

 the deposits in the basins of these, as well as of other Lincolnsht 



Natural*** 



