38 



ME. G. W. LAMPLUGH OX THE JUNCTION OF [vol. IxXYui, 



been worked now and again for local requirements in the bottom 

 of a little post-Grlacial valley which has here trenched the sheet of 

 Grlacial drift overspreading the upland ground of the neighbonrhood. 

 The pit is in a paddock between the water-mill and the mill-pond 

 at the western end of the village. The following section was ex- 

 posed during the summer of 1921 at the south side of the pit, in 

 a bank held up by tree-roots ; it was clear in the upper part, but 

 obscured by talus below. This section touches the side of the 

 little valley; a fresh digging 20 yards farther north showed a 

 clean section, but here, being in the tloor of the valley, the Base- 

 ment beds had been cut nearly through and replaced by gravelly 

 wash and ' run-of-the-hill.' 



Section at tlie soutliern end of tlie sandpit below 



pond, half a mile south-west of Leighton R 



Height above O.D. about 310 feet. 



4 

 3 b. 



md"^ 

 ! in >■ 

 3—3 



ZY. Claj' soil, with a few flints and drift-pebbles, passing") 

 down into — • ) 



Dingy -blue Gault clay, with indications of ' creep '; con-"^ 

 tains a few finger-shaped phosphatic nodules; passing > 

 into — ) 



Streaky gritty claj^ey ferruginous loam, with large and 

 small gritt}' phosphatic nodules of Grovebur}- type 

 the lower part, intermingled with and streaking into 



Lenticle of soft gritty pinkish fossiliferous limestone^ 

 of Shenley type, with two or three of the gritty phos- | 

 phatic nodules embedded in it ; becoming more pebbly }■ 

 and grittj' towards the edge, and then breaking into | 

 concretionarj' lumps and streaking out into 3 b. J 



Ferr ginous pebbl}^ loam, poorl}- exposed "^ 



Coarse ochre\' Leighton Sands, with indurated lumps C 

 and ' pan ' J 



Southcott Mill- 

 ail way Station. 



Thickness in feet ^ 

 about 1 



about 1 



3a 



2 to 3 



maximum \\ 



(at the southern 



end). 



Excavated to about 

 8 feet, but now 

 obscured, except 

 at the top. 

 4 to 5 feet of Sand seen 

 in the northern 

 part of the pit. 



The limestone is soft and crumbly, as usual when not well-pro- 

 tected, but is unmistakably of the peculiar Shenley composition, 

 showing also the same patchy concretionary structure and the 

 clustering of the fossils. These were in a poor state, but rather 

 numerous in one spot ; I obtained several Terebratulse, a Rhyncho- 

 nellid, small Aviculse, and ' Janira quinquecostata,' all of the 

 commoner Shenle}^ forms. 



The section is important in showing the association and inter- 

 linking of this peculiar kind of fossiliferous limestone with the 

 gritt}" loams containing gritty phosphatic nodules, exactly like 

 the material of the G-rovebury and Chamberlain Barn sections- 

 which has yielded the Mammillatus - fauna. I broke up the 

 limited number of gritty nodules obtainable from the small ex- 

 posure, and found traces of fossils about as frequently as in those 

 of the big sections just mentioned ; but the fragments which I 

 succeeded in collecting are not determinable, unless one fairly good 

 cast of a bivalve should prove to be so.] 



