57 



LINCOLNSHIRE NATURALISTS AT LITTLE BYTHAM. 



HENRY PRESTON, F.G.S., 



Haivthomden Villa, Grantham ; Geological Secretary to the Lincolnshire 

 Naturalists' Union. 



Favoured with delightful weather, the Lincolnshire Naturalists' 

 Union met at Little Bytham, on 17th July last, to hold their 

 26th Field Meeting - . The locality is particularly rich in its flora, 

 even for Lincolnshire, and, as a good series of rock sections 

 in the Lower Oolites were also to be seen, the excursion 

 promised to be a very interesting one. 



Upon arrival at Little Bytham the party was divided into 

 two sections, a number of naturalists accompanying the 

 Rev. W. Fowler to Careby Wood, whilst the remainder, 

 including geologists and entomologists, as well as botanists, 

 worked the railway cuttings and Grimsthorpe Park. The 

 disused railway, which formed one of the attractions of the 

 day, was constructed to connect Edenham with Little Bytham, 

 but was abandoned about forty years ago, and has become 

 a happy hunting ground for naturalists ever since. This old 

 line is interesting geologically, its direction being across the 

 outcrop of the various beds of the Great and Inferior Oolites. 

 Commencing in the Lincolnshire Limestone at Bytham, it 

 crosses the Upper Estuarine Clay, Great Oolite Limestone, 

 Great Oolite Clay, Cornbrash, and Oxford Clay, which repeat 

 themselves several times in its short length of four miles in 

 consequence of the folding of the strata. The physical features 

 also of Grimsthorpe Park are well worth noting. The greater 

 part of the ground is occupied by an outlier of Cornbrash, 

 much obscured by drift. Where the drift, however, has. been 

 denuded, the various escarpments of the outcropping beds, with 

 their gradual slopes, form interesting features in the landscape, 

 beautifully illustrating the terraced form of hill scenery due 

 to gently dipping beds of alternating hard and soft rocks. 



The first stop was made on the Midland railway cutting, 

 where a fine section of the Great Oolite Limestone was seen 

 overlaid by Boulder Clay. The bed was examined for its fossils, 

 and it was here that the position of the rocks was explained 

 in relation to the various sections seen by the Union on previous 

 excursions. 



1901 February i. 



