MIDDLE LIAS : BAN BURY. 223 
bed at Hook (or Hog's) Norton, where the overlying portions of 
the Marlstone have recently been worked (east of the railway- 
station) for ironstone. (See p. 304.) 
The most abundant fossils in the Marlstone are Terebratula 
punctata and Rhynchonella tetrahedra, which occur in clusters at 
various horizons : but often the stone is free from fossils and to 
this absence Hornton owes much of the excellence of its stone. 
Waldheimia rcsupinata, W. Moorei, W. indentata, and W. per- 
forata are also found. Belemnites are not uncommon, but 
Ammonites" are very rare, so far as my experience goes, for I did 
not obtain a single spacimen of the characteristic A. spinatus, 
which Mr. Beesley says is not uncommon. Cardinia concinna, 
Pecten cequivalvis, P. lunularis, Modiola, Lima., Ostrea sportella, 
Pleuromya, and Pentacrinus, together with drift-wood and 
Saurian bones are also met with. Mr. Beesley states that 
Ammonites margaritatus sometimes occurs. Altogether he 
obtained about 80 species of fossils from the beds.* Remains of 
Polyzoa ( Tabulipora inconstans and Stomatopora), and also of a 
Sponge (Leucandra Walfordi) have been discovered by Mr. E. A% 
Walford.t 
Portions of the Middle Lias according to StrickUurl, were well 
exhibited in a cutting in Steeple Aston parish (Of.W. Railway). 
He mentions that " Two strata of stone are here exhibited, the 
upper about 2, the lower 3 or 4 feet thick, separated by a bed 
of bluish sandy clay. Tb.3 lower bed consists of enormous 
roundish flattened concretions 10 or 12 feet in diameter, and 
exceedingly hard. Many hundreds of tons of this rock have been 
removed by blasting,and are now lying on the sidesof therailway." J 
These beds are probably below the Marlstone, for Prof. Hull 
notes that the rock-bed at Lower Heyford is essentially an iron- 
ore, and rests on beds of sand, with bands of siliceous limestone, 
together about 20 feet thick. At Steeple Aston the ore, as he 
remarks, has been smelted, and from the analysis, there appears 
to be little difference in its quality from that of the bed at 
Fawler. At Rousham also the Marlstone is highly ferruginous. 
Its thickness in this area is from 5 to 8 feet. 
The Marlstone has been extensively quarried about half a mile 
east of Adderbury church, to the south of the high road ; and 
here the beds shown were as follows : 
FT. IN. 
r Brown and dark bluish -grey clay with interrupted 
Upper Lias. 4 band of pale grey and pinkish earthy limestone ; 
I Ammonites serpentinus, A. communis, Belmnites 4 6 
f Brown and dark greenish Marlstone fissile in 
Middle J places, with A. acutus, A. communis, A. 
" Lias J annulatus, A. Eseri, Rhynchonella tetrahedra, 
(Marlstone) I Terebratula punctata, and large Belemnites in 
| top bed. R. tetrahedra and Belemnites here 
[ and there lower down - about 9 
* Proc. Warwickshire Field Club, 1872, p. 20. 
| Quart. .Tonrn. Geol. Soc., vol. xliii. p. 632 ; aud G. J. Hinde, Ann. Nat. Hist., 
ser. 6, vol. iv., p. 352. 
I Strickland, Memoirs, p. 184. 
Geol. Woodstock, pp. 9, 10. See also J. Phillips, Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc., 
Tol. xvi., p. 116, and Geol. Oxford, p. 115. 
