300 LIAS OP ENGLAND AND WALES: 
of lime. Moreover the deposit is not sufficiently rich in phos- 
phatic nodules to be of commercial value. 
Small phosphatic nodules have been noticed in the higher beds 
of the Lower Lias near Banbury, in the lower part of the Middle 
Lias in Lincolnshire, and in the Marlstone of Leicestershire. 
Lignite and Bituminous Shales. 
No beds of lignite of any economic importance occur in the 
Lias of the area under consideration. 
Small lenticular masses, sometimes presenting the characters of 
jet, have been found in the Lower Lias clays of Dorsetshire, 
Gloucestershire, Leicestershire, and Shropshire : impure lignite 
occurs occasionally at all horizons in the Lias. Prof. Judd notes 
the occurrence of jet in the Upper Lias, and mentions that at 
Alexton, masses of it, after being soaked in oil to prevent cracking, 
are used by the workmen for whetting razors. Lignite has also 
been found, in digging a well, at Thorpe Mandeville. 
Its occurrence in the dark and sometimes bituminous shales of 
the Lias has led to fruitless trials for coal. (See p. 150.) 
Thus in the Lower Lias, borings have been made near Axminster,* near 
Chard, f (400 feet) ; near Badgworth ; at Glastonbury (shaft sunk near George 
Inn, in 1792) ; at BretfortonJ (shaft sunk 300 feet, about the year 1831); 
near Thfussington, N.E. of Leicester, at a place called Coal-pit Lees ; at 
Huckerby (?), between Pilham and Willoughton, E.N.E. of Gainsborough ; 
in several places between Whitchurch and Market Drayton (see p. 180) ; and 
near Carlisle (p. 183). In the Middle and Lower Lias a boring was made about 
the year 1833, near Billesdon Coplow, east of Leicester ; it was carried to a 
depth of 600 feet.|| A boring was also made at Batheaston (p. 135). Borings 
have also been commenced in the Upper Lias at Neville Holt (100 feet), and 
near Stamford (500 feet). ^[ 
Other borings that penetrated the Lower Oolites, will be mentioned in the 
volume dealing with those formations. 
It has been stated that the paper-shales in the Upper Lias at Alderton 
Hill in Gloucestershire, are more or less bitminous, and "capable of 
distillation " ; no analysis, however, has been made. Dr. Smithe informs me 
that the Upper Lias shales at Churchdown Hill are also bituminous, but the 
amount of material locally present would be too small to be of economic 
value.** 
Iron-ores. 
The Jurassic rocks furnish the greater part of the iron-ore 
raised in this country, and of this the Lias yields a considerable 
portion. 
The occurrence of ore of economic value is local, and its concen- 
tration is evidently subsequent to the accumulation of the strata. 
* Conybeare and Phillips, Geol. Eng. and Wales, p. 264. 
f De la Beche, Report on Geol. Cornwall, &c., p. 515. See also p. 74 of this 
Memoir. 
I Memoirs of H. E. Strickland, p. 83. 
Conybeare and Phillips, Geol. Eng. and Wales, p, 265. The spot referred to 
above as Huckerby, is given as " Thickerby seven miles east of Gainsborough." 
|| Conybeare, Phil. Mag., ser. 3, vol. iii. p. 112 ; Judd, Geol. Rutland, p. 62. 
f Judd, Ibid., pp. 104, 107. 
** F. Smithe and W. C. Lucy, Proc. Cotteswold Club, vol. x. p. 204 and plate ; 
Smithe, Ibid., vol. iii. p. 45. See also B. Thompson, Journ. Northampton Nat. 
Hist. Soc., vol. iii. p. 185. 
