SUCCESSION" IN THE TRENT BASIN. 451 



rocks. The cuttings made during its construction in 1882 at 

 intervals along the line showed some interesting sections of drift. 

 The ground is composed of low u adulations of Keuper, chiefly the 

 Upper Marl, except in the west, where it passes through bosses of 

 Primary rock. The old Forest-rocks rise up from beneath the 

 Keuper to the south of the line. 



The cuttings commence about a mile west of Loughborough. The 

 gentle undulations here consist of Keuper marl covered by Boulder- 

 clay and sand, the latter reaching a thickness in some places of 

 15 feet. At the east end of the cutting it consists of unstratified or 

 silty Boulder-clay resting upon Keuper marl. The rock-fragments, 

 many of which are finely striated and polished, consist of black and 

 white limestone, Coal-measure sandstone, Millstone Grit, Yoredale 

 sandstone, chert, ironstone, coal, Keuper sandstone, and occasional 

 fragments of Lias limestone or fossils. No flints were observed 

 except near the surface. Pockets or masses of sand also occur and 

 increase in number until, when the centre of the cutting is reached, 

 they form a tolerably distinct but highly contorted bed of yellowish- 

 brown laminated sand, with seams of decomposed coal and layers of 

 clay with boulders. The contortions of this deposit are sometimes 

 so marked that the sand-beds are bent over until the proper order 

 of superposition is quite reversed. 



A large number of erratics were met with in this cutting at 

 Loughborough Pield. The more noticeable of these were as 

 follows : — 



ft. ft. ft. 



1. Subangular sandstone boulder, deeply fluted 3x2 X ^ 



2. Subangular toadstone 1x1 X | 



3. Angular sandstone 2x2^x2^ 



4. Gritstone 2x2 x2^ 



5. Mountain Limestone, much grooved, scratched, 



and polished 4x3:^X1^ 



The second deep portion of the cutting, passing near Knight 

 Thorpe Lodge, shows few signs of stratification. The Boulder- 

 clay is here an unstratified mass of red clay, with pockets of red 

 sand ; it is studded with pebbles and boulders of the rocks found 

 in the previously-described section. Twelve feet was shown, the 

 clay sometimes shading off into Keuper and at other times intensely 

 contorted into it. 



The next important section was exposed in the cutting west of 

 Sheepshead Station. The lowest portion of the deposit consisted of 

 a morainic Boulder-clay crammed with boulders, both angular and 

 subangular, of Carboniferous and Triassic rocks. At the west end 

 of the section the whole of the cutting passed through drift, which 

 in the upper portion contained numerous included masses of sand. 

 Indeed the lower portion is a subglacial moraine formed from the 

 debris of older rocks, while the upper portion is a moraine formed 

 by the breaking-up of aqueous Boulder-clay and sand. 



The cutting near White-Horse Wood presented an interesting 

 succession of glacial clays and sands. The lowest bed was at the 



