NOTES AND QUERIES. 



215 



many pebbles of sandstone, basalt, greenstone, jasper, also flints and nodnles 

 of chalk, crystals of quartz, and carbonate of lime. The fossils which I have 

 most plentifully found were Gri/phea incurca from the Lias, ostrese, belemnites, 

 ammonites (scarcely ever entire), terebratula?, serpulre (three different species 

 very abundant), ckoanites, and sponges from the chalk ; echinites, portions of 

 the stems of encrinites, and pentacrinites, and many shells from the Lias and 

 Oolite*. In some of the pits there are no fossils at all, the gravel consisting 

 merely of an aggregate of flints and pebbles, with a ferruginous yellow sand. 



The scenery of this part of the country around which the Oxford clay is 

 developed, is as uninteresting and devoid of beauty as can well be imagined, 

 the only variation to the low flat fields being the distant view of the Bedford 

 hills. A long and dreary valley, through which the river Ouse flows, extends 

 several miles up the country, from Gayhurst to Olney. But on the other side 

 the limestones of the Lower Oolites break into gentle undulations and hills ; in 

 some places the scenery, for a woodland country, is quite picturesque. I have 

 before mentioned that forest-marble was much quarried in the neighbourhood 

 of Wolverton ; it takes the place of the Cornbrash of the south of England, 

 making its appearance just below the Oxford clay ; it is usually of a bluc-grcy 

 colour, very hard, and sometimes finely laminated ; but the fossils, in which it 

 abounds, are difficult of extraction, owing to the indurated character of the 

 stone. Trigoniee, terebratula?, the cones and leaves of coniferous trees, are 

 particularly abundant. 



The forest-marble extends from near Lethbury to Gayhurst, near which 

 village we observe the Cornbrash succeeding the Eorest-niarble. Good sections 

 of this limestone are exposed in some of the quarries. 



There is a small stone-pit on the left-hand side of the road, about a quarter 

 of a mile from the village of Gayhurst, in which, besides an abundance of the 

 usual mollusca of the Cornbrash, I have found good specimens of Echinodcrms, 

 principally Clypeus sinuatus, Nucleolites clunicularis, N. orbicularis, and several 

 species of Cidaridae ; also palatal teeth of Strophodus magnus, and traces of 

 fossil wood. 



The following sketch will serve to illustrate my remarks on the section dis- 

 played in this quarry. 



b is a finely laminated fissile limestone, called by the 

 quarrymen " pendle ;" it naturally splits into thin slaty 

 plate-like leaves, as the Stonesfield slate; but few 

 organic remains are found in it, excepting now and then 

 a few Trigonire. c is a layer of light -coloured clay, 

 abounding in Terebratuloe, Isocarclia?, with many other 

 shells and echinites. This is but three feet thick, and 

 passes into the limestone e, through the medium of an 

 indurated clay marked d, which is also very shelly. 



The limestone e is much used both for road and build- 

 ing-purposes, but it is comparatively sterile of fossil 

 remains. In the lowest rock, which is a sandy free- 

 stone, Clypeus sinuatus, Clunicularis, Cidaris, &c. 

 abound; But few shells are found entire, as they are diffi- 

 cult of extraction, owing to the indurated character of 

 the stone. The Cornbrash extends in a north-west 

 Section of Stone-pit at direction, and is quarried for building stone all around 



Gayhurst. the town of Olney. 



The Inferior Oolite next makes its appearance, and is observed near Eckly, 



Vegetable soil. 



* The Belemnites are sometimes collected by the villagers, who consider them, when 

 pounded, an excellent cure for rheumatism. 



