Mr. J. W. Judd on the Neocomian Strata in Yorkshire fyc. 141 



the Neocomian beds of the north of England, in connexion with 

 those of North- western Germany. 



The inland development of these strata in the Yale of Pickering 

 was described as being greatly obscured by superficial deposits. The 

 beds, however, exposed at Reighton, "West Heslerton, and Knapton 

 were shown to agree, both in physical and palseontological characters, 

 with several of those before described in the cliff section at Speeton. 

 The Neocomian ironstones of Lincolnshire have, since the date of 

 the former paper on the subject (1867), been extensively opened out 

 by mining-operations ; and the valuable and instructive sections 

 thus afforded were described in detail. A general sketch was then 

 given of the range and characteristics of the Neocomian strata in 

 Yorkshire and Lincolnshire. 



Evidence was next adduced to show that strata of the same age, 

 and remarkably similar in character, had been deposited over a very 

 wide area in Northern Europe. Throughout the whole of these 

 districts, however, the Neocomian strata were very inadequately ex- 

 posed, and afforded no good general sections ; and the Speeton Cliff 

 thus acquired an additional interest from the fact that it forms a 

 valuable, and almost the only, key whereby we can correlate the 

 beds over this vast area. 



Studying the continental deposits in this manner, by the aid of 

 the Speeton section the fossiliferous clays of the island of Heligo- 

 land were shown to belong to the " zone of Ammonites Speetonensis" 

 i. e. the upper part of the Lower Neocomian. The boulders found 

 in the drift deposits of Holland were referred to as evidence of the 

 former wide extension of limestones similar to those of Tealby in 

 Lincolnshire. In Westphalia the sandstones, limestones, ironstones, 

 and clays, so extensively developed in the hills of Bentheim and the 

 Teutoburger Wald, were shown to be of Middle Neocomian age, 

 while certain beds of clay in the same district were referable to the 

 Upper Neocomian. In Hanover the] " Hilsthon " of M. Er. Ad. 

 Romer was shown to be in its upper part Upper Neocomian, and 

 in its lower part Middle Neocomian, the latter passing locally into 

 beds of oolitic ironstone, sandstones, and limestones precisely similar 

 to those of the same age in Lincolnshire. The narrow strip of highly 

 inclined Neocomian strata along the northern foot of the Hartz was 

 shown to belong to the same two subdivisions. In Brunswick, how- 

 ever, the Neocomian series was more complete ; for underneath some 

 400. feet of clays, which on palaeontological evidence clearly belong 

 to the Upper and Middle divisions, there were certain marly lime- 

 stones, in places becoming ferruginous, containing an abundant and 

 interesting fauna which was most unmistakably that of the Lower 

 Neocomian. 



It was then pointed out that in northern Germany there was 

 evidence, as in this country, of an unconformity existing between 

 the Upper Cretaceous and the Neocomian, as well as between this 

 last and the Jurassic. Attention was also drawn to the fact that 

 while the Neocomian series was complete in Yorkshire and Brunswick, 

 its lowest member was absent in the intermediate districts, being 



