156 LOWER OOLITIC ROCKS OF ENGLAND: 
Over the country east and north-east of Hook Norton, the 
evidence tends to show that both upper and lower portions of the 
Inferior Oolite are represented in a sandy series that passes into 
the Northamptonshire area. Over portions of that area the 
general divisions comprise the Lower Estuarine Beds resting on 
the Northampton Sands. 
Prof. Judd remarks that outliers of the Oolites cap a number 
of mere or less isolated hills in the north of Oxfordshire, such as 
Brailes Hill, Mine Hill, Tysoe Hill, Shenlow Hill, Epwell Hill, 
Long Hill, and the high grounds above Epwell, Sibford, and Which- 
ford. " The variable beds of limestones, sands, ironstones, &c., 
which form these outliers, have been classed with the Northampton 
Sand, and indeed they can be traced from this point northward 
and eastward almost continuously with that series of more or 
less ferruginous beds. * * * Tracing the same beds to the 
southwards, we find in the outlier above Whichford and Long 
Compton, thick beds of white freestone underlaid by sands; 
beneath these occur beds of calcareo-siliceous stone with but few 
well-preserved fossils." From these beds Mr. Walford has 
recorded Astarte elegans and Trigonia signata* Near Long 
Compton a specimen of Ammonites garantianus, was obtained 
from the " Northampton Sand."f 
A section at Sharpe's Hill, south-west of Hook Norton Leys 
and north-west of Hook Norton, showed the following section : 
FT. IN. 
["Brown clay and rubble 
I Greenish, marly clay - 
Great Oolite Series -<^ Band of limestone 
Oto4 
j White marl with Gervillia 
[Dark clay 
| Ferruginous marly bed. 
Hard false-bedded" oolitic and shelly 
f~T?or,f J limestone - - -60 
"\ Gritty oolitic and conglomeratic 
Inferior | | limestone ; with lignite, Trigonia 
Oolite. > (_ signata, &c. - 8 to 1 
NT^ fV, n1 f Brown ferruginous sands and cal- 
-R ^ o 4 careous sandstone (blue-hearted) 
I with shelly beds - . - -60 
The upper beds in this quarry show resemblances to beds seen 
north of Lower Tadmarton : they belong to the Great Oolite 
Series. The 1 Oolite below is the Chipping Norton Limestone. 
The sandy beds may represent the Northampton Sands ; at any 
rate they are equivalent to beds seen at Newbottle Spinney and 
near Bloxham. Mr. Walford records from the lower beds Avicula 
braamburiensis, Gervillia, Ostrea, and Trigonia costata-,% and he 
recognizes no strata older than the zone of Ammonites Parkinsoni. 
North-west of Nill Farm, and west of Hook Norton Lodge, 
the following section was exposed : 
* Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc., vol. xxxix. p. 233. 
t Judd, Geol. Rutland, pp. 13, 17, 21. 
: Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc. ? vol. xxxix. p. 233. 
