1867.] JTJDD LINCOLNSHIEE WOLDS. 245 



Pecten-bed and the several beds of limestone are well seen; large 

 specimens of Ammonites and Ancyloceras occur here. !N'orthward,. 

 at Walesbj and Xormanby-le-Wold, the limestones appear of great 

 thickness, and predominate over the clays. Here too a still further 

 modification is effected by the impregnation of some of the beds 

 with oxide of iron, which renders them extremely valuable ironstones. 

 The iron in these beds occurs in two states — namely, chemically 

 combined with the rock, or as nodules of almost pnre hydrated brown 

 oxide of iron mechanically diffused through it. This brown oxide 

 of iron sometimes forms minute spherical oolitic grains, exactly re- 

 sembling those in the ironshot beds of the Inferior Oolite, at others 

 irregular concretionary nodnles up to the size of a hen's egg. Many 

 hundreds of tons of ironstone have already been sent from pits at 

 Claxby, Acre House, and Hundon to the furnaces of Yorkshire ; and 

 a great part of the land in this district has, I believe, been secured 

 by ironmasters, with a view to the full development of these mineral 

 treasures. At present the face of the cliff in which these iron- 

 yielding beds are exposed, is in a gi^eat measure concealed by 

 superficial deposits, while still greater confusion has been caused 

 by landslips; but when mining operations shall have been com- 

 menced we may hope to gain much valuable information, both 

 on the stratigraphical position and the fossil contents of the various 

 beds. 



Perhaps the best place for examining these beds is on the cliff 

 below Acre House. The rocks here, consisting of alternations of 

 limestones and clays (some of the latter being of a pinkish colour), 

 all impregnated with oxide of iron, are very full of fossils. Besides 

 the species mentioned as occurring at K'orth Willingham, which 

 are almost equally abundant here, we find Terehratida depressa^ 

 Lam. (several varieties), T. Jiipj^ojms, Eom., T. ohtusa, Sow. T. 

 sella, Sow., with Belemnites lateralis, Phil,, and B. jaculum, Phil. 

 The brow of I^ettleton Hill is evidently formed of the beds of the 

 Tealby series ; and numerous fossils may often be picked up on the 

 surface of the ploughed fields. Further to the north, as we have 

 already seen, these beds disappear under the "Wolds. 



South of Tealby these beds are seen to great advantage in the pits 

 about Sixhills, Hainton, and South Willingham, but they show indica- 

 tions of diminishing in thickness as we go southwards. The country 

 south of the last-mentioned village is much covered with masses of 

 chalk-rubble, as before described. On the east of the river Bain, 

 however, we again find these beds at several places, as above Scam- 

 blesby and Brinkhill. In a bed of clay at the latter place, which 

 contains the characteristic Tealby fossils, large quantities of iron- 

 pyrites have been found at different times ; this has long been locally 

 celebrated as "Brinkhill gold." In digging the foundations and 

 well for the new hall at Langton, the Tealby series was passed 

 through. It appears here to be only 10 or 12 feet thick, and to 

 consist of yellow very sandy limestone and clay ; many of the cha- 

 racteristic fossils of the series were found here. In J^orfolk no trace 

 of the Tealby series has yet been found, the Garstone formation of 



