232 PHOCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. [Apr. 3, 



the whole eastern side of the Bain valley as far as the village of 

 Biscathorpe. Along this line^ and indeed wherever the sands are 

 soft, the red chalk forms a steep escarpment ; and the position of the 

 various beds is very distinctly indicated : the white chalk forms 

 sheep-walks or arable land; the red chalk is frequently covered with 

 plantations ; and the sands below form rabbit-warrens. The pits on 

 this line, where the succession of the beds of this series may be best 

 studied and their fossils collected, are those at Eed Hill Kiln, Pan 

 Holes Lane, Nob Hill, and one on the slope of the hill above Don- 

 nington. At the second-mentioned of these localities the whole 

 series is seen at once, and its thickness can be measured ; inclusive 

 of the sponge-bed, it is 14 feet, the dip of the beds being 3° E. 

 Along the whole of this line the Hunstanton beds maintain a great 

 uniformity of lithological character, as well as of thickness. Every- 

 where we find the top of the series formed by the sponge-bed, which 

 graduates in colour into the yellow and pink courses ; and these are 

 followed by a number of courses, each 12 to 15 inches thick, of the 

 nodular dark-red chalk, the lowest course graduating into the sand. 

 The upper beds of the series contain 8;pongia paradoxica,^oodiW2irdi, 

 Terebratula hiplicata, Sow., and large Inocerami in great abundance, 

 while Belemnites are comparatively scarce. The lower portion of the 

 series, on the contrary, abounds with the diiferent varieties of Be- 

 lemnites minimus, Mill,, while the first-mentioned fossils are of 

 comparatively rare occurrence. 



The red chalk is seen running along both sides of the deep and 

 narrow valley called Welsdale Bottom, which is cut through the 

 Lower Chalk into the sands below, and opens into the valley of the 

 Bain at Gayton-le-Wold. 



The river Bain is formed by the junction of two small streams, 

 one rising at Ludford, and the other near Kelstern ; and in the sides 

 of the narrow and tortuous valleys formed by these streams, the red 

 chalk can at short intervals be traced. 



The line of outcrop of the red chalk on the west of the Bain 

 valley is hidden by enormous masses of Drift, consisting principally 

 of white chalk-rubble with flints ; pits from 20 to 30 feet deep 

 occur in this rubble, which is extensively dug for lime -burning. At 

 the top of the vaUey, which runs by South Willingham, however, 

 we again find the Hunstanton limestone, as also in a pit at the 

 Heneage Arms Inn. In this district the red chalk is used for 

 '' marling " the land, and the pits dug in it for that purpose enable 

 us to trace its outcrop along the brow of the Wolds, above North 

 Willingham, Tealby, and Walesby, beyond which last place it makes 

 a circuit round a valley formed by a tributary of the Ancholme, and 

 runs in a very irregular line northwards, forming the boundary be- 

 tween the smooth chalk hills and the rugged clifi*s of clay, limestone, 

 and ironstone. Thus it is seen above Nettleton (near which place 

 it apparently attains its highest elevation in this county), and again 

 in the lower part of the town of Caistor, beyond which it has been 

 traced and mapped as far as Grasby. At this place the escarpment, 

 of which the red chalk forms the summit, has declined very greatly 



