34 



J. SHIPMAN : 



ANCIEXT BEACH AT CASTLE DOXINGTON. 



sketches m:;ce of the sides of the excavation while tlie work was in 

 progress. a::d careful obsen-ation of the ground from time to time, it 

 was possible to construct the sketch-section represented in the wood- 

 cut (Fig. I), which I think fairly represents the character of the 

 junction. 



Curiously enough, the u:uc -:r:p of Carboniferous rocks — it is 

 not many \-ard- :u v, ivhh, and auou: half a mile in length — tliat runs 

 along the edge of t":e a'.'-u\ual plain of the Trent at Castle Donington 

 had for A ears been an object of solicitude by local geologists, but no 

 one that I e\'cr came across, except Professor Hull himself, who 

 survevcd da/.s r ar: for the ueoiogical Sur\-e_\u iiad e\'er been able to get 

 a glimpse of these Carboniferous beds. And it was while examining 

 the Keuper escarpment here, and hunting for a possible exposure of 

 these beds widn my friend. Air. Horace Brown, F.G.S., of Burton-on- 

 Trent. that I came upon the excavation that was destined to turn out 

 so n::eres:u:^-. 



In his memoir on this district,'-' Hull describes a section which 

 was at that time opened out north-west of Castle Donington ' in 

 certain strata, which are probably referable to the Millstone Grit.' 

 * The section.' he goes on to say, 'occurs in a lane leading to Caven- 

 dish Bridge." and ' the strata consist of yellow, white, and blue shale, 

 alternating with thin-bedded grits and rusty ironstone bands or 

 concretions. He adds that ' if these strata do not form part of the 

 Millstone Grit, they at least belong to the lower portion of the Coal 

 Measures." Tadr- dcscru ::on of the cliaracter of the strata agrees 

 perfectly '>vi:h what was met Nvith m tnc gasholder excavation. The 

 Carboniferous strata, where Hull saw them, dipped towards the 

 south-east : here, however, the dip was south-westerly. t But this 

 only bears out the natural inferences to be drawn from the section 

 recently exposed, and tends to show that the Carboniferous rocks 

 vrere not only bent into an antichnal arch, but were broken up by 

 dislocations before Keuper times. 



The first trace of the base of the Keuper that I met with at 

 this spot, however, wc- in the suunmer of iSSc, when I chanced to 

 come across a very iu:eres::u^- band of breccia (ct in the woodcut, 

 Fig. 1 1 in :;te Keuper at the foot of the cliff. It was in a newly- 

 made exca\-ation that afterwards became the site of the new gasholder. 

 The outcrop of the breccia was about two feet above the level of the 

 road, and the bed dipped at a low angle in a southerly direction. 



* ' Geolog}' of the Leicestershire Coallield,' ^c, p. 8. 

 t In a diagrammatic section of the Keuper rocks at Castle Donington given in 

 this memoir, the Carboniferous strata are represented as dipping to the norths 

 however. This must be an error. 



Naturalist, 



