INFERIOR OOLITE : CHIPPING NORTON LIMESTONE. 149 
FT. IK. 
~ ,., ("Pale marly and flaggy oolitic lime- 
rv < stones, yielding Natica cincta, Tere~ 
Marl> [ bratula frnbiia, &c. (local) - - 15 
^Calcareous sandstones and sands, con- 
-vr , , I glomeratic in places ; with. Am- 
Northampton^ ^ onites C0 rrugatus, A. opalinus, 
I Rhynchonella cynocephala, and Tere- 
[_ bratula trilineata - - 30tol50 
The CHIPPING NORTON LIMESTONE consists of oolitic and 
sandy limestones of variable character, some of the beds becom- 
ing rather siliceous in places, like certain beds of the Inferior 
Oolite near Fro in e, as in a quarry half-a-mile N.E. of Churchill, 
Here and there the stone is made up of comminuted shells, and 
it contains small quartz pebbles and rolled pebbles of oolite. 
Clayey seams occur now and again, and concretionary iron-stone 
is also present. The stone usually is sharply jointed. In places 
the beds decompose into a friable sandy loam or marl. In many 
quarries the exposed faces of the beds become lime-washed or 
incrusted with a calcareous coating. This is the "Rock Milk" 
(Lac Lunai) of old mineralogists, sometimes also termed the 
"Agaric Mineral," from its supposed resemblance to fungoid 
growth.* 
The beds are often much shattered, and the " rifts " or 
" swillies " are filled with clay and debris from the overlying 
Great Oolite Series. In some cases the broken beds are due to 
dissolution of calcareous matter, from the more sandy limestones 
that occur in the lower part of this division. 
The total thickness of this Limestone is probably never more 
than 30 feet, and is usually less, The beds do not constitute a 
good freestone, but they are employed for building-purposes, for 
dry-walling, and for road-metal. 
The Chipping Norton Limestone was described under this name 
in 1878 by Mr. Hudleston.t It forms the highest part of the 
Inferior Oolite in this district, and has been compared with the 
White Freestone of the Stroud district, and with certain ferru- 
ginous limestones seen in the railway-cuttings between Notgrore 
and Bourton-on- the -Water (p. 133). 
It is overlaid in places by oolitic limestones, and by clays and 
marls with Ostrea acumi?iata, O. Sowerbyi, Nerincea JEudesi, &c. 
belonging to the Great Oolite Series. It clearly underlies the 
Stonestield Series with which is associated the Fuller's Earth, and 
there is evidence in places of unconformable overlap of the 
Chipping Norton Limestone by the superincumbent strata. 
Nevertheless, it has been pointed out by Mr. Walford and others, 
that the Limestone presents Bathonian characters in its fossils. 
We are indebted mainly to Mr. James Windoes, of Chipping 
Norton, for our acquaintance with the Ammonites, which are far 
from abundant. From the lower portion of the limestone he has 
* See Kidd, Outlines of Mineralogy, vol. i. p. 39 ; and Weaver, Trans. Geol. Soc. 
er. 2, vol. i. p. 351. 
f Proc. Geol. Assoc., vol. v. p. 384. 
