148 LOWER OOLITIC ROCKS OF ENGLAND : 
It is, however, clear that the mass of the sandy strata previously- 
grouped, as belonging partly to the Great Oolite and partly to the 
Inferior Oolite, belongs to the latter series ; but until the area has 
been mapped in detail on the 6-inch scale, it is hardly likely that the 
remaining doubts with regard to the correlation of particular sub- 
divisions, will be dispelled. There is no more complicated tract 
among the Oolitic rocks of England than this region of the In- 
ferior Oolite between Chipping Norton, Charlbury, and Banbury. 
We enter a region of changing sedimentation, which to some 
extent corrssponds with the change in the general strike of the 
beds. Thus the general northerly strike of the Inferior Oolite,, 
from Dorsetshire to the Cotteswoids, is modified by undulations 
and faults that appear eastwards of Northleach, and a general 
easterly or north-easterly strike is maintained for some distance., 
until the main outcrop again turns in a northerly direction towards 
the Lincolnshire " Cliff." In the following remarks, the correla- 
tions that are indicated, must be taken as provisional. 
In passing eastwards across the Vale of Moreton we find that 
the representatives of the Cotteswold Sands are no longer to be 
identified, and that the lowest beds of which we have evidence 
above the Upper Lias Clay, are those containing Ammonites 
opalinus and Rhynchonella cynocephala, fossils which characterize 
the upper stage of the Gloucestershire Cephalopoda Bed. In this 
area, then, we have a more definite division between Upper Lias 
and Inferior Oolite, and the name Midford Sand, applied to the 
passage-beds, is no longer applicable. 
We find no evidence of Pea Grit, nor of any mass of the 
Freestones, nor of the Gryphite Grit, but there are sandy beds 
at different horizons ; and it will be remembered that, in the 
northern portion of the Cotteswoids we find the incoming of 
sandy conditions, marked by the calcareous sandstones in the 
Lower Freestone division and by the sands (termed Harford 
Sands) that are associated with the Upper Freestone. In this 
area of Oxfordshire we have not only sandy equivalents of the 
Freestone Series, but sandy beds equivalent to portions of the 
Ragstone division of the Cotteswold Hills. Moreover we have 
occasional limestones that belong sometimes to the Freestone 
Series, sometimes to the very highest portion of the Inferior Oolite 
The local divisions of the Inferior Oolite Series may be sum- 
marized as follows : 
FT. IN. 
"Hard oolitic and sandy limestones 
(Chipping Norton Limestone) ; un- 
derlaid in some places by iron-shot 
oolitic beds (Clypeus Grit), in others 
by white and yellow sands, ferru- 
T> . t ginous or calcareous sandstones with 
SeneiT ^ lignite (Sandy Series with lignite), 
and sometimes resting directly on 
limestone of a conglomeratic nature 
(Trigonia and Coral Bed) with Astarte 
minima, Lithodomus, Trigonia pro- 
ducta, T. signata, Terebratula globata, 
and Ithynchonella spinosa 10 to 50 
