15 



THE FOSSILIFEROUS DRIFT DEPOSITS 

 AT KIRMINQTON, LINCOLNSHIRE * 



J. W. STATHER. F.G.S i 



The work on the important Kirming-ton section, which was 

 beg-un in 1903,1" has now been carried to a successful conclusion ; 

 and the results show that in some respects this section has no 

 known parallel in Eng-lish drift sections. A brickyard is worked 

 at this place in a mass of warp or clay containing- estuarine 

 shells with a freshwater bed at its base, and this deposit is 

 overlain by a bed of coarse flinty shingle, above which in one part 

 of the pit there is found a few feet of red stony clay believed to be 

 a boulder clay. The boring in 1903 proved the presence of a 

 glacial clay at some depth beneath the warp. The chief object 

 of our investigation has been to discover the relationship of the 

 fossiliferous warp to the Glacial Series, and to carry the boring 

 through the superficial deposits to the chalk, which was not 

 reached last year. 



During June 1904 a new boring was carried out under the 

 personal supervision of the Chairman and Secretary, with the 

 assistance of Mr. G. W. B. Macturk. Mr. Villiers, well engineer, 

 of Beverley, undertook to put down the boring. 



In order to secure a section in another part of the pit, the 

 site of the new boring was fixed at a point 80 yards north-east 

 of the previous boring. Although at the spot chosen the warp 

 used for brickmaking had been excavated to a depth of five feet 

 below the level of its base at the former site, this material was 

 passed through in the new boring to a further depth of three 

 feet, so that its base is here eight feet below its position in the 

 former boring. The total depth attained by the new boring, 

 combined with the height of the open section, was 96 feet, or 

 41 feet lower than was reached previously. The surface of the 

 chalk lay much deeper than was anticipated, and the borings 

 seem to prove that the surface features of the locality are not 

 due to the presence of chalk, as hitherto supposed, but that the 



* Report of Committee appointed to Investig-ate the Fossiliferous Drift 

 Deposits at Kirming-ton, Lincolnshire, and at Various Localities in the East 

 Riding- of Yorkshire, consisting- of Mr. G. W. Lamplugh (Chairman), Dr. 

 Tempest Anderson, Professor J. W. Carr, Rev. W, L. Carter, Mr. A. R. 

 Dwerryhouse, Mr. F. W. Harnier, Mr. J. H. Howarth, Rev. W. Johnson, 

 Professor P. F. Kendall, Mr. E. T. Newton, F.R.S., Mr. H. M. Platnauer, 

 Mr. Clement Reid, F.R.S., Mr. Thos. Sheppard, and Mr. J. W. Stather 

 (Secretary). 



t See ' Naturalist,' 1903, pp. 422-423. 



1915 January 2. 



