VoL 55.] GEOLOGY OF THE GREAT CENTFvlL EMLW.iY. 65 



•5. Geolo&y of tilt Gkeat Central Railway {New Extension to 

 London of the Manchester, Sheffield, ^ Lincolnshire Railway) : 

 Rugby to Catesby. By Beeby Thompson, Esq., F.G.S., P.C.S. 

 (Read November 23rd, 1898.) 



Contents. 



Page 



I. Introductory ., , , 65 



II. Description of the Sections 67 



III. The Glacial Deposits 79 



IV. List of JFossils 83 



I. Introductory. 



In the Report of an Excursion of the Geologists' Association to 

 Catesby in July 1896,^ I have already given an account of the 

 geology of 6 miles of the new extension to London of the Man- 

 chester, Sheffield, & Lincolnshire Railway (since re-named the 

 Great Central Railway), reaching from Catesby to a little beyond 

 Woodford : that is, from the 62nd to the 68th mile. The sections 

 exposed were chiefly in Middle and Upper Lias ; but, at the northern 

 end of the Catesby tunnel, the capricornus-zone of the Lower Lias 

 was partly cut through, all the characteristic fossils of that zone 

 being found. 



The portion of the line which it is now proposed to describe, from 

 Rugby to Catesby, extends from the 52nd to the 62nd mile. Two 

 papers have already dealt with parts of it,^ but they necessarily 

 left much detail to be filled in ; indeed the new matter afforded by 

 excavations made since the publication of those two papers would 

 probably constitute a sufficient justification for a third. 



I had seen no part of the sections about to be described until 

 August 1896, and the exceptionally wet autumn of that year 

 prevented a thorough examination of the slopes themselves, such as 

 I fully intended to make. On renewing my acquaintance with the 

 line, in the spring of 1897, I found some of the more southerly 

 cuttings finished and grassed over. Eortunately the more northerly 

 cuttings, towards Rugby, were developing their most interesting 

 parts. I am much indebted to Mr. A. W, H. Casson, Resident 

 Engineer, for permission to examine the sections, and for valuable 

 information incorporated in the accompanying figures (1-5, pp. QG, 

 70, 72, 74, & 76). 



In the section of the line from Woodford to Catesby the ground 

 and the va.rious geological formations composing it rise in a northerly 

 direction. From Catesby to Rugby there is a considerable fall in the 

 surface of the ground (295 feet from the highest level near Catesby 

 to Clifton Brook), and as the geological formations continue to rise, 

 fairly low beds of the Lower Lias are met with near Rugby. 



1 Proc. Geol. Assoc, vol. xiv (1896) pp. 421-430. 



^ ' Geol. London Extens. Manch., Shelf., & Lines. Railway, pt. i: Annesley to 

 Rugby,' by 0. Fox-Strangways ; and ' Pt. ii : Rugby to Q^^^inton Road, near 

 Aylesbury,' by H. B. Woodward, Geol. Mag. 1897, pp. 49-59 & 97-105. 



a J. G. S. No. 217. F 



