112 LOWER OOLITIC ROCKS OF ENGLAND : 
pisolitic layers, 15 to 45 feet thick, that locally admit of the 
following divisions : 
rPea Grit. 
P r > <3~T.;a ^o w er Limestone. 
* I Brown Ferruginous Beds (Ferruginous Oolite of J". 
I Buck man). 
These beds have been variously described by different geologists, 
for the sections alter much in detail at every locality. 
Brown Ferruginous Beds. The beds of brown ferruginous 
oolite and sandy limestone that are sometimes met with at the 
base, have yielded' no distinctive fossils, and may be regarded as 
passage-beds from the Cephalopoda Bed. They comprise two or 
three beds, which vary from 5 to 9 feet in thickness, and some- 
times yield many Lamelli'oranchs in the lower portion, as observed 
by Witch ell. Mr. Hudleston records Ncrincea (Ptygmattf) xenos 
from the beds on Crickley Hill, regarding it is the oldest species 
of Nerincea hitherto discovered in Britain.* The beds constitute a 
kind of ragstone, and are occasionally used for rough masonry. 
The lowest beds of the Inferior Oolite, seen at the Frith quarry, 
Painswick, consist of brown and slightly oolitic limestone, with 
ramifying ferruginous tubes (see p. 34). 
Fm. 41. 
Diagram- section from Leckhampton to Uley Bury. 
(E. Witchell.) (Distance, 16 mile?.) 
a. Lower Freestone. e. Cephalopoda Bed. "I [Midford 
b. Pea Grit. ~\ f. Cotteswold Sands. J Sand.] 
c. Lower Limestone. I r p r . 
d. Brown Ferruginous Beds f L1 G ea . , l 
(Sandy Limestone). J 
Lower Limestone. The term " Lower Limestone " was given 
in 1882, by Witchell; it is only of local application. These beds, 
however, attain importance on Hand wick Hill, where they have 
been opened up at the Ruscombe quarries. There, beneath the 
Pea Grit, the beds described by Witchell were as followsf : 
* Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc., vol. xlix. (Proc.), p. 127. 
f Geol. Stroud, p. 41 ; and Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc., vol. xlii. p. 269. 
