NORWOOD — GEOLOGY OF HOTHAM. 



421 



Several interesting rocks of the secondary series pass b}^ tliis village, 

 generally in bands of inconsiderable thickness, and in a direction nearly 

 ]S".W.IT. In most other districts widely separated, they can here bo 

 examined near a single point; for we can walk in about t^o miles from 

 the ISTew Eed Sandstone, across the Lias and Oolite, to the top of the 

 Chalk. And as these rocks are, in part, little knovv^n, and, in part, 

 have been long held to be exceptional and peculiar— moreover, as they 

 seem to me to throw light upon questions not quite settled at the present 

 time — such as the existence of the Bone-Bed and Insect-Bed, at the base 

 of the Yorkshire Lias, and of the Inferior Oolite in the long litigated 

 neighbourhood of Cave — I am induced to offer some observations upon 

 them, which I made at Hotham during two very short vacations, and 

 which, I trust, will be found to be of general, as well as of local 

 interest. The purpose of this paper will be, to compare some of the 

 most important formations occurring near Hotham with the same 

 formations as they are more tj'pically represented, and more familiarly 

 known, in other parts of England. 



(I.) The road from iN'orth Cave to Market Wcighton, through South 

 and North Cliife, lies, for about four miles, in the direction already 

 indicated, under a low and regular range of hill, which slopes down 

 close upon it on the right hand side. This range is the escarpment of 

 the Lower Lias limestones and shales, which may here be seen resting 

 conformably upon the New Eed Sandstone, and presenting to the west, 

 that gently- elevated line of richly -wooded country, which commonly 

 marks the junction of these two rocks. Immediately on the other side 

 of the road there stretches away a wide -extended level plain — sandy 

 and barren towards the where it is broken by the insulated hill 



of Holme, and contains the famous lake of Bedsheclc; but covered 

 towards the S.W., in the neighbourhood of the rivers Oase and Humber, 

 by great depths of alluvial accumulations. 



The numerous pits which have been dug along this ridge of Lias, for 

 the purpose of marling the light sandy lands adjacent, afford good 

 opportunities for noting the character of the formation, and collecting 

 its distinguishing fossils. There are the usual alternations of shales 

 and bands of limestone which we see along the cliffs of the Severn, in 

 Gloucestershire, and wherever else this part of the Lias is exposed. 



The fossils, also, are identically those which we should expect. 

 Reckoning downwards from the top of the ridge, we have Gryplicea 



