COTTESWOLD DISTRICT. 57 



Limestone can be obtained from the vicinity of Doynton, and also to the fact that 

 there are several quarries on the plateau in the Great Oolite. The village of Little 

 Sodbury is noteworthy as the place whence the Rev. Mr. Steinhauer supplied 

 Sowerby with the types of Trochus concavus, T. duplicatus, and T. dimidiatus 

 previous to the year 1818 (' Min. Conch.,' vol. 2, p. 180, pi. 181, figs. 3, 4, 5). As 

 Little Sodbury itself is upon the Lias, these fossils must have been obtained from 

 the Inferior Oolite quarries towards the top of the Cotteswold escarpment. The old 

 parish pit in Mr. Steinhauer's time was situated at the very top of the road which 

 leads straight up the hill, from the village, and is about half a mile south of the 

 large quarry on Horton Hill. 



Hoeton Hill Quaeey. — This place is such a long distance from any convenient 

 town, being about half way between Bath and Stroud, though somewhat nearer 

 the latter, that it has always remained more or less a terra incognita to paleonto- 

 logists. The exposure is an extremely interesting one, as affording us an insight 

 into the development of the Inferior Oolite between the two points. 



Commencing as usual at the base we find a somewhat variable thickness of 

 poorly fossiliferous freestones. The top of this series is indurated and bored, 

 affording evidence of a used surface, and thereby to a certain extent of uncomformity. 

 The exact age of this series is not easy to determine, though it may be safely set 

 down to some part of the Murchisona3-zon.e, such as yields the greater part of the 

 freestones or fine grained oolites of the Cotteswolds. Below Hawkesbury Upton 

 not less than thirty feet of these beds are exposed. 



The break between this and the rich shell-beds with Gasteropoda is most 

 complete, lithologically and otherwise. There can be little doubt that these 

 courses are the equivalents of the Upper Trigonia-grit of Stroud, &c. T. costata 

 is very large and abundant, whilst the Clavellate species are less numerous. No 

 Ammonites were found, but Rhynch. spinosa is not uncommon and often of con- 

 siderable size. From this series, but especially from the lower course of stone, a 

 considerable number of Gasteropods have been obtained. These fossils were 

 associated with the large Conchifera in the ordinary way, but weathering for a long 

 period had developed them to a considerable extent. Though fairly numerous, 

 they are far less so than the Conchifera, &c. This horizon cannot fail to remind 

 us of the one at Grove (see Profile No. 6), and there is one fossil here which has 

 never yet been found by me, except in this instance, beyond No. 1 District, viz. 

 Cerithium ? contortum, Desk, so characteristic of the Parkinsoni-be&s, of the south. 

 Once more, then, we gather a rich harvest of Gasteropods on the horizon of P x of 

 Burton-Bradstock Cliff, The absence of any representative of the Humphriesianus- 

 zone at Horton Hill seems to be complete. Sometimes these beds occur in three 

 courses. 



It is extremely interesting to obtain above this a horizon defined by abundance 



8 



