NOTES AND QUERIES. 
215 
many pebbles of sandstone, basalt, greenstone, jasper, also flints and nodules 
of chalk, crystals of quartz, and carbonate of lime. The fossils which I have 
most plentitully found were Gri/phea incurva from the Lias, ostrese, beleumites, 
ammonites (scarcely ever entire), terebratulse, serpulse (three different species 
very abundant), choanites, and sponges from the chalk ; echiuites, portions of 
the stems of encrinites, and pentacrinites, and many shells from the Lias and 
Oolite*. In some of the pits there are no fossils at all, the gravel consisting 
merely of an aggregate of flints and pebbles, with a ferruginous yellow sand. 
The scenery of this part of the country around which the Oxford clay is 
developed, is as uninteresting and devoid of beauty as can well be imagined, 
the only variation to the low flat fields being the distant view of the Bedford 
hills. A long and dreary valley, through wliich the river Ouse flows, extends 
several miles up the country, from Gayhurst to Olney. But on the other side 
the limestones of the Lower Oolites break into gentle undulations and hills ; in 
some places the scenery, for a woodland country, is quite pictiu-esque. I have 
before mentioned that forest-marble was much quarried in the neighbourhood 
of Wolverton ; it takes the place of the Cornbrash of the south of England, 
making its appearance just below the Oxford clay; it is usually of a blue-grey 
colour, very hard, and sometimes finely laminated ; but the fossils, in wliich it 
abounds, are difficult of extraction, owing to the indurated character of the 
stone. Trigoniae, terebratulae, the cones and leaves of coniferous trees, ai'e 
particularly abundant. 
The forest-marble extends from near Lethbury to Gayhurst, near which 
village we observe the Cornbrash succeeding the Forest-marble. Good sections 
of this limestone are exposed in some of the quarries. 
There is a small stone-pit on the left-hand side of the road, about a quarter 
of a mile from the village of Gayhurst, in which, besides an abundance of the 
usual mollusca of the Cornbrash, I have found good specimens of Echiuoderms, 
principally Clijpeus simiatus, Kucleolites cli(?iicidaris, N. orbicularis, and several 
species of Ciduridse ; also palatal teeth of Strophodus magnuSy and traces of 
fossil wood. 
The following sketch will serve to illustrate my remarks on the section dis- 
played in this quarry. 
Vegetable soQ. ^ is a finely laminated fissile limestone, called by the 
quarrymen "pendle;" it naturally splits into thin slaty 
plate-like leaves, as the Stonesfield slate; but few 
organic remains are found in it, excepting now and then 
a few Trigonise. c is a layer of bght-coloured clay, 
abounding in Terebratulae, Isocardise, with many other 
shells and echiuites. This is but three feet thick, and 
passes into the limestone e, through the medium of an 
indurated clay marked which is also very shelly. 
The limestone e is much used both for road and build- 
ing-purposes, but it is comparatively sterile of fossil 
remains. In the lowest rock, which is a sandy free- 
stone, Cli/peus sinuatus, Clunicularis, Cidaris, &c.. 
abound But few shells are found entire, as they are diffi- 
cult of extraction, owing to the indurated character of 
the stone. The Cornbrash extends in a north-west 
direction, and is quarried for building stone all around 
the town of Olney. 
Section of Stone-pit at 
Gayhurst. 
The Liferior Oolite next makes its appearance, and is observed near Eckly, 
* The Belemnitcs are sometimes collected by the villagers, who consider them, when 
pounded, an excellent cure for rheumatism. 
