127 



SECTION OE THE LIAS CLAY IX A. EAI WAY-CUTTING 

 NEAE STOW-ON-THE AYOLD. 



Br THE Eet. S. Lucas, E.G.S. 



As Mr. E. Hull of the Geological Survey, in bis ' Geology of the 

 Country around Cheltenham ' (1857), p. 24, complains of the scarcity 

 of sections of the Upper Lias in that district, and as a section in the 

 Eailway, near Oddington and Stow-on-the-Wold, exhibits a section 

 of Liassic clays, which appear to me to belong to the upper series, I 

 beg to offer you the following rough but accurate account of the bed 

 there exposed. 



The list of fossils has been made with the assistance of a geolo- 

 gical friend in London. 



I believe the section here described is not at the very top of the 

 Lias, for on the hill-side on either side of the valley the Lias asceuds 

 considerably higher than at the railway-cutting. The cutting, which 

 is in the parish of Mangersbury, is about twenty-five to thirty feet 

 deep, and the section is as follows : — 



1. Clay 6 feet . Tliere are no fossils in this bed. It has 



been probably mostly washed down from 

 higlier ground. 



2. Ferruginous Bed . 1 ft. 6 in. This is almost one compact mass of shells : 



Belemnites elongatus^ Mill.; Ammonites 

 Tiyirida, D'Orb. ; A. Humphrey sianus 

 (young), Sow. ; A.Henleyi (young), Sow.; 

 A. anmdatus {^o^x\l^^ Sow.; Nautilus', 

 TrocJms imbricatiis. Sow. ; T. ci/closto- 

 ona (?), Quenst. ; Pleurotomaria anglica^ 

 Sow. {v!\c\\\di\ngP.Amalthei, Quenst.) ; P. 

 Pallium, Sow.; Helicina (Rotella) ex- 

 pansa, Sow. ; Turbo euomphabcs, Quenst. ; 

 Astarte; Unicardium cardioides, Phil. ; 

 PholadomyaMurchisonicB, Sow.; Cucullcea 

 3Ine)2steri(?), Quenst. ; Area Muensteri^ 

 Quenst. ; A. elongata, Quenst.; Myacites 

 Liassinus, Quenst. ; M. elegans, Phil. ; 

 M. tiimidiis (?), Mor. and Lyc. ; M. sp. ; 

 Myoconclia psilonoti (?), Quenst. ; Car- 

 dium mnlticostatum (?), Quenst. ; Mo- 

 diola Scalprum,Soc.; Aaomia; Gryphcea 

 itimrva, Sow. ; G. obliquata, G-olclf. ; 

 Ostrea ; Plicatula spinosa (and var.), 

 Sow.; Avicula incequivalvis, Sow.; Perna 

 (Crenatula) ventricosa, Sow. ; Pecten 

 subl(2vis. Sow. ; Plagiostoma Hermanni, 

 Groldf. ; P. duplicatum, Sow. ; Rhyncho- 

 o 'a' -m r^^ nella rimosa. Sow. 



3. Stifl Blue Clay . 3 feet . Containing an Ammonite (^.^ew^i), and 



only a few other fossils. 



4. Hard, slightly . 1 foot . A small Unicardium {U. verrucosum), is 



more ferruginous ^^ry plentiful in this bed, generaUy oc- 



and impervious ^^^^^ ^^l^^^' 



bed. 



