NORWOOD — GEOLOGY OF HOTHAM. 
477 
" Upper Lias " bed. I suggested, on this evidence, that it was 
probably such at the Geological Section at Leeds. My opinion, 
however, has since been shaken by the discover}', among my Hotham 
fossils, of a specimen of Hinnites ahjectus, the matrix of which leads me 
strongly to suspect that it was obtained from the "Ligniferous Marl." 
It is, then, for these reasons that I desire to leave that zone altogether 
suh judice until 1 can see it again, or until it shall be seen by some 
more competent person. As to the conditions of its deposit — judging 
from the unbroken state of all its organisms, small and frail as many 
of them were, with the dngle and remarkable exception of its rolled 
and fragmentary remains of land-plants, and reasoning from analogy 
about the habitats of the fossils themselves during life, it would 
appear that this bed was very tranquilly laid down in a shallow sea, 
near the mouth of some ancient river which watered a land with a 
genial climate, and bore away, amid the spoils of its banks and jungles, 
a fern related to the common Polypody. 
IV. Proceeding from the " Ligniferous Marl " pit towards 
Drewton, we immediately come upon a thin bed of chalk-drift, which 
conceals the contact of the subjacent rocks, and arrive, in about 100 
yards, as nearly as I can remember, at a large Oolitic quarry on the 
right-hand side. I am at present unable to say by what kind of 
transition the marl-band passes into this very dissimilar Oolitic rock ; 
but obviously this is a point which it would be very interesting to 
clear up. "Hotham Quany " is one of many more such like, which 
follow the line of these oolites northwards from the Humber, and were, 
no doubt, opened originally for the erection of the neighbouring 
villages and churches, the last being chiefly of Norman foundation. 
Several of these old quarries have been partially filled up and brought 
again under the plough in recent times ; as is the case with those at 
Drewton, which, with one inconsiderable exception, are now only to 
be traced by inequalities in the ground. For the most part, however, 
they remain open still ; and, where they are not grass-grown but 
continue in use for the roads or for lime-burning, they afford excellent 
facilities for geological examination. It is possible that they might 
be found, upon a survey, to be situated in different Oolitic zones ; and 
so would require to be studied for some distance north and south, in 
order to obtain a full and perfect exposition of the Oolites at Cave. 
Hence it will be necessary for me to confine myself in this description, 
