1863.] SOLL IXFEKIOE OOLITE. 311 



The Freestone continues to increase in thickness as we proceed 

 from the last section to "Wotton Underedge, being 35 or 40 feet 

 thick at Coneygore "Wood, a mile north of the town. Continuing to 

 thicken towards Frocester and Painswick Hills, it acquires its full 

 development in the vicinity of Cheltenham, where it constitutes the 

 " Building Freestone " of Leckhampton. The overlying Ragstones 

 at the same time gradually rise to higher levels, and at Coneygore 

 Wood crop out before reaching the brow of the hill, but may be 

 found on higher ground half a mile further along the road, towards 

 the Rushmire turnpike-gate. 



From the section in Coneygore "Wood and the sides of Symond's 

 Hall Hill, the upper of the two Ragstones may be followed north- 

 ward to INympsfield and Avening, and along the sides of the Yale of 

 Nails worth, where it becomes identified with the " Upper Ragstone " 

 or " Clypeus-grit " of Mr. Hull*", and the " ; Pholadomya-grit " of 

 Mr. Lycettt, the casts of Pholadomya and Homomya and the re- 

 mains of Clypeus (Nucleolites) Plotii especially characterizing this 

 highest zone in the northern part of the Cotteswolds, but being by 

 no means common south of the Yalley of Stroud. 



In like manner the fossiliferous limestone immediately beneath it 

 is continued onward to Rodborough Hill, where it becomes continuous 

 with the Trigonia- and Gryphite- grits of Messrs. "Wright, Lycett, 

 and others, and the Lower Ragstone of Mr. Hull J. In the neigh- 

 bourhood of Xympsfield this latter has associated with it a band of 

 hard pale-coloured limestone, crowded with RJiynchonella spinosa. 



In the vicinity of "Wotton, as at Symond's Hall Hill, the Lower 

 Ragstone rests directly on the Building Freestone ; but, crossing the 

 high ground on the east to the Yale of Nailsworth, we find, in the 

 smaller tributaries of Horsley and Avening, a few inches of the Oolite- 

 marl, with its characteristic Terebratula fimbria, underlying the base 

 of the Ragstone, and resting upon 4 or 5 feet of pale-coloured ar- 

 gillaceous limestone, which graduates downwards into the Freestone. 

 This is the earliest appearance of the Oolite-marl in the southerly 

 direction, and a little further down the valley it begins to be sepa- 

 rated from the base of the Ragstone by the interposition of some 

 more or less sandy oolite belonging to the Upper or " Bastard " Free- 

 stone. This latter, at Nailsworth, is about 3 feet in thickness ; but, 

 passing along the valley to Stroud, both it and the underlying Oolite- 

 marl gain in thickness and importance, and separate the Ragstones 

 more and more widely from the Lower Freestone. 



At Rodborough Hill the Lower Ragstone is about 10 or 12 feet in 

 thickness. The basement-bed is crowded with Conchifera, and con- 

 stitutes the Lower Trigonia- grit, or lowest of the three members into 

 which it has been subdivided. As we proceed northward, however, 

 both this and the middle, or Gryphite-grit division, increase in thick- 

 ness. At "White's Hill, near Randwick, Mr. Lycett has estimated it 

 at 5 feet. At Kimmersley Castle it is somewhat more, and contains 



* Memoirs of the Geological Survey, " Geology of parts of Wiltshire and 

 Gloucestershire," p. 10. 



t ' Cotteswold Hills,' p. 68. + Op. cit. p. 10. 



T2 



