"Vol. 54.] RAILWAY BETWEEJSI^ LINCOLN AND CHESTERFIELD. 167 



The course of this railway being along its whole length nearly at 

 right angles to the strike of the beds, renders it very favourable for 

 geological investigation. The finest cuttings are undoubtedly those 

 in the Coal Measures at the western end, but the Magnesian Lime- 

 stone and the Buiiter Pebble Beds also afford very fine sections. 

 The absence of Glacial deposits is another very interesting feature. 

 Not a trace of genuine Eoulder Clay has been seen along the whole 

 line, which traverses a distance of nearly 40 miles across the centre 

 of the country. 



EXPLANATION OF PLATE X. 



Sections in Bolsover Tunnel and section across the alluvium of the Trent 

 Yalley, the vertical scale of the former being 40 feet=l inch, and of the 

 latter 96 feet=l inch. The horizontal scale of the Trent Valley section is 

 192 feet=l inch. 



Discussion. 



Prof. Hull pointed out how the district traversed by this 

 railway was of especial interest for several reasons : (1) for the 

 remarkable regularity in the succession of the formations from the 

 Oolites down to the Permian; (2) as being a storehouse for the 

 coal-supply of the future ; and (3) as containing in the New Red 

 Sandstone of Sherwood Forest the most important water-bearing 

 formation in that part of England. He referred to the deep bore- 

 hole put down some years ago by the Corporation of Lincoln at 

 Scarle, which appears to have been situated close to the line of 

 railway described by the Author, and was intended to prove the 

 presence of coal. Commencing at the base of the Lias, it passed 

 through all the formations to the base of the Magnesian Limestone 

 Series at a depth of 2030 feet, and entered some peculiar strata, 

 which he (Prof. Hull) believed to be representative of the Upper 

 Coal Measures of the Manchester district ; these are not present in 

 the Derbyshire Coalfield, owing to overlap by the Permian beds. 



Mr. Haemer, alluding to the question of the important change 

 produced by infiltration, hoped shortly to lay before the Society 

 evidence to show that the difference between the two principal and 

 seemingly self-evident divisions of the Coralline Crag of East 

 Anglia was more apparent than real, and that the so-called ' Polyzoan 

 Rock ' forming the upper part of that formation was, in fact, only 

 an altered condition of the shelly sands of the lower part. 



The Eev. J. F. Blake said that, although there might not be any 

 drift along the particular line described by the Author, there was 

 plenty a little way to the south. On the hills near Mansfield there 

 were large boulders of ash like that of the Lake District, and a 

 little south of it masses of Borrowdale syenite and Iron Crag lava, 

 or what looked like them. He had called it the 'volcanic' drift. 

 The gravels also that capped the Pebble Beds were largely composed 

 of the Permian limestone occurring at lower levels on the west, and 

 farther east were found Liassic fossils from the east ; so that the 

 drift had come from the north-west and east. 



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