316 PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. [Mai. 18, 



very slightly so, at Painswick Hill. Beyond this it is represented by 

 yellowish sandy limestone and ferruginous oolitic rock, which, near 

 the Horseponds, are less than 20 feet, and at Haresfield Hill are 

 about 12 feet in thickness. At Frocester Hill, the light-brown 

 sandy rock, with casts of Gresslya and Pholadomya, overlying a hard 

 fossiliferous bed, together about 7g feet in thickness, is all that re- 

 mains to represent the Pea-grit of Crickley Hill ; and the 2 or 3 

 feet of yellowish sandy rock, with Gresslya, which was seen under- 

 lying the Freestone in the sections at Horton, and near the Cross 

 Hands Inn, probably belongs to the same zone, and indicates the 

 approaching southern limits of the bed. 



All these beds thin out in a south-easterly direction, as already 

 shown by Mr. Hull *. The Upper Ragstone alone crosses the valley 

 of the Evenload, and in Oxfordshire is the only representative of the 

 Inferior Oolite, but finally it thins out in the vicinity of the Cher- 

 well. The Lower Ragstone was seen to have nearly reached its 

 eastern limits at the quarries above Clapton, and is absent at Stow, 

 Seizincote, and Bourton-on-the-hill. The Upper Freestone and 

 Oolite-marl are on the eve of disappearing at Condicote and Turk 

 Dean, and do not extend southward further than Avening ; while 

 the Lower Freestone is seen thinning out at Stow, Sherborne, and 

 near Doddington Park, ten miles north of Bath. The northern and 

 southern limits of the Pea-grit have already been indicated. East- 

 ward it ceases to be pisolitic before reaching Dowdeswell, beyond 

 which the bed has not hitherto been recognized. 



Geographical Distribution of the Fossils. — The fossils of the Upper 

 Ragstone, as far as they are at present known to me, have been 

 already enumerated. Those of the Lower Ragstone have been re- 

 corded by Dr. Wright, Mr. Lycett, and Mr. Hull. With respect to 

 the lists given by Dr. Wright, however, it must be borne in mind 

 that the Humphriesianus-zone of Dorsetshire and Somerset, and the 

 Parkinsoni-zone of the Northern Cotteswolds, are on one and the 

 same geological horizon. 



The geographical distribution of the fossils of the Lower Ragstone 

 is very unequal, and many of the species and even genera, although 

 abundant, are altogether local. The Ammonites, for instance, are 

 numerous only in a few localities in the southern part of the district ; 

 elsewhere only scattered individuals are met with, and not more 

 frequently than they are in the northern part of the Cotteswolds f. 



* " On the South-easterly Attenuation of the Lower Secondary Formations 

 of England," Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc. vol. xvi. p. 71. 



f With respect to Ammonites ParJcinsoni and Ammonites Mtirchisonce, these 

 fossils are by no means so restricted in their range in time as some authors sup- 

 pose. A. ParJcinsoni is stated by Mr. Lycett to occur in the Pea-grit " but 

 sparingly" (Cotteswold Hills, p. 37). It has been met with in the Lower Rag- 

 stone of Somersetshire, and occurs very generally in the Upper Trigonia-grit of 

 the Northern Cotteswolds. A. Murcliisonai was found by the officers of the 

 Geological Survey in the Lower Ragstone of Leckhampton and Stanley Hills 

 (Hull, Geol. Cheltenham, p. 48), together with A. Soioei'byi, A. concavus, and 

 A. Dorsetensis, and in the Upper Eagstone near Churchill, in Oxfordshire 

 (Geol. of Country around Woodstock, p. 13). On the authority of Professor 



