MIDDLE LIAS : NEVILLE UOLT. 233 
are especially characterized by the abundance of several small varieties of 
Ammonites margaritatus and Cardium truncatum. They were exposed in the 
Melton and Oakham Canal between Edmondthorpe and Whissendine station, 
in the hill east of Whissendine station, at Blaston, Loddington, and Deepdale. 
The clays of this division pass down into the Lower Lias clays with 
Ammonites capricornus, &c., and (as remarked by Prof. Judd) it is not 
always easy to separate them, so that their boundary on the map is represented 
by a broken line. 
Referring to the neighbourhood of Neville Holt, Prof. Judd 
says, " It may be considered by some as open to question whether, 
at this and some other points, the Marlstone Rock-bed has not 
been wholly removed by denudation before the deposition of the 
Upper Lias Clay. The more probable opinion, and th^t which 
has been adopted by the Survey, is that the Marlstone Rock-bed 
is represented in a greatly attenuated and rudimentary condition 
by the nodular bands which occur at the top of the Middle Lias 
Series. Indeed, at some points there occurs a transition from the 
irregular and inconstant nodular bands, to a well defined Rock-bed 
presenting the characteristic features, both lithological and 
pal aeon tological, of the highest member of the Middle Lias."* 
The thickness of the Rock-bed at Great Bowden is only 2 feet, 
according to Mr. H. E. Quilter. In this neighbourhood he notes 
that there is a clear line of demarcation between the Middle and 
Lower Lias. The Middle Lias clays contain ironstone-nodules, 
as in the section noticed at Little Bowden, and they are very 
unfossiliferous, while the Lower Lias clays below, contain nodules 
with Ammonites capricornus and other fossils, t 
In a brickyard near Sutton Basset, Prof. Judd noted the 
following section : 
FT. IN. 
Soil and Boulder Clay - - - - 3 
Upper Lias Clay - - - - - 2 
f Rock-bed of the Marlstone - 4 
I Brown clay, containing nodules of ironstone - 30 
I " Skerry," a thin band of ferruginous, micaceous 
Middle Lias. <{ rock, crowded with fossils - - 6 
| Laminated, light-blue clay containing much mica ; 
weathering brown near the joint-planes - 80 
(_A thin band similar to the Skerry. 
Prof. Judd notes also that near Ashley, on the road to 
Wilbarston, the Rock-bed of the Marlstone is clearly exposed, and 
is seen to consist of several beds of stone, sometimes of a 
decidedly calcareous character, and containing peculiar flattened 
nodules. J He states that at the foot of the Hill on which the 
Neville'Holt ironworks were opened, in a cutting made for the 
railway-incline, the basement-beds of the Upper Lias were 
underlaid by the Middle Lias series, as follows : 
* Geol. Rutland, p. 75. 
t Rep. Leicester Lit. and Phil. Soc. for 1883-84, p. 87. 
j Geol. Rutland, p. 75. 
Ibid., pp. 73-77. 
