NORWOOD — GEOLOGY OF HOTHAM. 



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abjectus and H. velatus ; Lima duplicata ; Pecten demissus ; a small variety 

 of Trigonia costata ; a large flat Pinna ; and species of Ostrcea, Modiola, 

 and JVerincea. 



Mr. Lycett, however, has recorded his opinion that ''perhaps the 

 genus JVennm has not been found in any deposit older than the Oolite- 

 Marir 



I am disposed to attach considerable stratigraphical importance to 

 the well- ascertained occurrence of Pygaster semisulcatus at Hotham 

 quarry, because Dr. Wright, than whom there is no higher authority 

 on the question, has said in his great '' Monograph on the Oolitic 

 Echinodermata " that ''it is extremely doubtful whether Pygaster 

 semisulcatus has been found as yet out of the English Inferior Oolite 

 and he adds that two distinct species of the genus Pygaster exist in the 

 Oolites in Yorkshire — viz., one collected from the Inferior Oolite of 

 Whitwell, and the other (P. umbrella) from the Coralline Oolite of 

 Malton. Assuming, then, on this testimony, that the Inferior Oolite 

 is found at Hotham, it appears to be bounded approximately towards 

 the east by the high-road from South Cave to Market Weigh ton, just 

 beyond which another rock crops out in a sand-hole. In the large quarry 

 belonging to I^orth Cave, which may be found near " Castle Earm," 

 adjoining that of Hotham, the stone seems more brecciated, and its 

 fossils are very fragmentary. Its slabs are overlaid with Millepores 

 and debris of Echinodermata. 



The small hole which yet remains at Drewton, and is used for 

 burning lime, has much the same lithological character which I have 

 ascribed to the beds at Hotham ; it is sandy and comparatively un- 

 fossiliferous, and its place is some distance to the west of the turnpike, 

 nearly in a line with the two larger pits aforesaid. I collected there, 

 after much trouble and several inspections, a well-preserved Pseudo- 

 diadema depressum in no way distinguishable from Cotswoldian Inferior 

 Oolite specimens, and a piece of Pygaster semisulcatus- This convinced 

 me that I was still in the Hotham zone ; and I could detect no 

 change in the rubbish on the ploughed lands till I reached the 

 high-road. 



It will no doubt be thought that this zone presents but a very scanty 

 fauna in comparison with the Cotswold Pisolites. And indeed there is 

 a marked absence of many things which might have been expected, 

 particularly of the Bracliiopoda. I suspect, then, from the quality of 

 the rock itself, the state in which its fossils are found, and the striking 

 dearth of deep-water remains, that we may have here a brecciated and 

 littoral condition of the Inferior Oolite sea ; which is perhaps not contrary 

 to what we should expect when we remember the peculiar character of the 

 Ligniferous Marl " below. This completes what I have to say about the 

 Geology of Hotham, to which I propose to restrict myself for the present. 



