PRECARBONIFfcROUS ROCKS OF CHARNWOOD FORE8T. 777 



probably connected with that in the quarry by Whitwick village 

 rather than with the rocks which we now proceed to describe. 

 Ratchet Hill itself, commencing from the little spinney at its S.W. 

 end, affords an almost continuous series of exposures. The uppermost 

 are a succession of beds of greenish and greyish gritty ash, dipping in 

 all probability to W.S.W. But about the middle the character of the 

 rock changes, and we find a breccia containing large fragments of 

 the purple porphyrinic rock so often met with. The matrix becomes 

 schistose ; quartz grains and felspar crystals occur, showing a passage 

 to the Peldar Rock. Just before reaching the N.E. end of the ridge 

 there is another breccia, also containing large fragments both of the 

 above porphyrinic rock and of altered ashes, slates, and quartzites. 

 Under an overhanging crag is a knob bearing a close resemblance to 

 an intrusive felstone ; but the small extent exposed is not sufficient 

 to give distinct evidence. The rock at this end of the ridge is not 

 quite the same as the Peldar Rock some 200 yards distant ; but their 

 identity can hardly be doubted. The rocks of Gun Hill, though 

 in a line with those just described, fall more naturally into the next 

 section. 



15. Postponing for a while the Whitwick-village quarry, and 

 starting from the point where the lane from the Castle meets the 

 main road, we cross the steep ridge of High Cadman, one of the 

 highest points in this district. It consists of hard greenish and 

 whitish ashy grits, much altered. The meeting of these enables the 

 dip to be made out at one point of the south end ; it is W.S.W. 



The long craggy and picturesque ridge of the rocks of High 

 Sharpley commences about 100 yards from the fork of the lanes. 

 It consists of a dark blue, rather schistose rock ; containing imper- 

 fect felspar crystals and quartz grains, which, however, are less 

 abundant and smaller than those on Peldar Tor. Surfaces apparently 

 of bedding are numerous, dipping W.S.W. Parallel, and to the south, 

 is another much shorter ridge of the same rock ; and outcrops of it 

 occur up to the very wall of the spinneys on Great Gun Hill, and 

 form the knoll on which stands the tower-like cottage there. 



After careful comparison of the Sharpley Rock, that of the base- 

 ment beds of Ratchet Hill, and the rock of Peldar Tor, we consider 

 them the equivalents of each other. They show a successive altera- 

 tion of character ; the change begun at the second place is carried 

 further at the third. We are also inclined to think that the rocks 

 of Green Hill form a continuation of the series. 



The spinney on Great Gun Hill is separated from the cottage- 

 garden and from the outer moorland of Sharpley by two stone walls, 

 running N.E. and S.E. All outside is Sharpley rock ; but the instant 

 that we enter the spinney we come upon perfectly different beds. 

 The north wall must run along the very line of a large fault ; and it 

 is not unlikely that the west one does the same. The rock within 

 is a whitish ash, dip uncertain. Not far off to the S.E. is a coarse 

 breccia. No continuous section of these rocks can be found. They 

 are only seen in three or four isolated knolls in the wood. About 

 the middle of the spinney we find outcropping rock on which wea- 



