1857.] BUCKMAN OOLITES. 107 



at their base at Nailsworth* and other places — animal remains are 

 abundant. 



Hence I am compelled to adopt the following conclusion : — 



To class the sands with the Oolites ; as they evidently mark, to 

 say the least, an oscillation in the previous or true liassic conditions ; 

 and, though a few, and only a few of the Cephalopoda common to 

 the Lias still maintained their ground, yet at the base of the sands 

 we are not without a shelly deposit so thoroughly Oolitic that a 

 glance is sufficient to decide the question. 



In adopting the line contended for by Dr. Wright, we do so en- 

 tirely upon the evidence of fossils which are yet mostly peculiar to 

 isolated positions ; and, whilst many of them range high in the Oolites, 

 few, if any, are found in the real Lias, — of course, those got from 

 the Lias itself not being properly classed as proofs of the position of 

 the sands, much less of the Cephalopoda- bed. 



We give up also a well-defined line, — namely, that of a blue mica- 

 ceous clay, overlaid by calcareous sands, the latter being the precur- 

 sors of the more perfect calcareous condition, which, indeed, did 

 sometimes prevail in the same horizon, — only to form a boundary- 

 line between even courses of beds of true oolitic structure : this, to 

 my view, appears very unreasonable. 



Having so far disposed of the question of the basement-bed, it may 

 be well here to give a Table of the different members of the Inferior 

 Oolite rock as they appear in Gloucestershire ; they are as follow, in 

 descending order : 



B. 6. Clypeus-brash Clvpeus sinuatus. 



. jTrigonia-grit 1 f Trigonia costata. 



" 5 - {Grvphite-grit } ] Gryphea Buckmanni. 



L " r ° J i Ammonites. 



,, 4. Oolite-marlstone Terebratula fimbria. 



,,3. Freestone Small broken shells. 



2 [Flaggy Oolite = " Shelly Freestone" of f Small shells much like 



" \ Brodie \ those of Great Oolite. 



TF ' n s O Yfp 1 f Urchins in pisolitic beds. 



„ 1. "j n Vf ds > occasionally pisolitic •< Ammonites and bivalve 



*- ° e " sa ' -* [ shells. 



These beds in their extension from the north to the south Cottes- 

 wolds observe many modifications ; for, although each member here 

 laid down may be traced either in a typical or representative form, 

 yet each differs widely not only in aspect, but in thickness, at differ- 

 ent stations. This is especially the case with the Freestone beds, 

 which at Leckhampton and Dodwell quarries are as much as 80 feet 

 thick ; these thin off in the Frocester section to 40 feet, whilst north 

 of Leckhampton, as at Stanway Hill, and along the Stow-on-the-Wold 

 line of section they are nearly absent ; but the thickness is made up 

 by an augmentation of the Ferruginous Oolite, which here forms a 



* My friend Mr. C. Moore informs me that he found other calcareous bands in 

 the sand section at Nailsworth charged with fossils ; and he further informs me that 

 the conditions there marked are precisely the same as at the " Half-way House" 

 near Yeovil, but that there the Ammonite-bed is in the centre of the lower blocks 

 of Inferior Oolite. 



