SRODIE GEOLOGY OF GLOUCESTERSHIRE. 83 



Contains a great variety of fossils, often well preserved, consisting of 

 marine shells, corals, and echinoderms ; the latter are more numerous, 

 both in genera and individuals, in this bed, than in any other por- 

 tion of the Inferior Oolite. Among the testacea are some fine and 

 well-preserved Terebratulae, among which Terebratula simplex and 

 Terebratula plicata may be especially enumerated. The surfaces of the 

 blocks are often covered with corals and shells, with fragments of 

 Pentacrinites and claws of crabs, and deserve a careful scrutiny. 

 The pisolite is 38 feet thick at Leckhampton, and 40 feet at Crickley 

 Hill. It should be observed that many organic remains are peculiar 

 to it, and occur nowhere else in the series. 



A remarkable change is to be noted in the overlying stratum, the free- 

 stone, both lithologically and zoologically. It is a fine-grained, yellowish 

 oolite, closely resembling that of Bath, a portion of it being good and 

 Useful for building. In the upper part there are very few fossils, but the 

 lower portion is almost entirely made up of small shells, in a more or 

 less comminuted state. Nevertheless, by a diligent search, a series of 

 pretty specimens may be obtained at this spot. These broken shells 

 exist also along the western face of the hill towards Crickley. At first 

 sight this stratum appears less rich in specimens than the other divisions 

 of the Inferior Oolite ; it has yielded, however, upwards of 160 species 

 of small shells, the bivalves preponderating in number over the univalves. 

 A few species are limited to the freestone, but others range indis- 

 criminately throughout the group. A considerable number agree speci* 

 fically with forms in the Great Oolite, especially with those of the more 

 shelly beds, in which the marine conditions appear to have been repeated 

 to a certain extent, and which, in other respects, were evidently very 

 similar. This fact is more to be regarded because, as a general rule, the 

 species in the Inferior and Great Oolites are quite distinct, although the 

 genera are for the most part alike. The worn and imperfect condition of the 

 shells shows that the sea in which the freestone was deposited was subject 

 to the movements of frequent and variable currents, which broke 

 up and triturated any organic bodies accumulated therein. In this 

 respect, too, it resembles the Great Oolite. The thickness of the 

 lower freestone is 106 feet. This rock affords a very good example 

 of the oolitic character, the small inorganic oval grains and shelly 

 matter being cemented together by carbonate of lime. The freestone 

 is present in other parts of the Cotswolds ; as at Cleeve, Eroadway, and 



