278 LOWER OOLITIC EOCKS OF ENGLAND : 
That the "White Limestone" comes beneath the mass of 
oolites shown in the cuttings south of the railway-tunnels, is to 
some extent confirmed by a quarry east of the White Horse, on 
the main road to the west. There we find white oolites exposed 
to a depth of 7 or 8 feet as follows : 
f White Oolite. 
(Bubbly layer with Isocardia and Terebratula 
maxillata. 
White limestone (like Dagham stone) with burrows 
or cavities passing down irregularly, 2 feet 
or more. 
White oolite. 
The Great Oolite has for a long period been extensively worked 
on Minchinhampton Common,* near Stroud ; for the beds yield 
good weatherstone. The district has been rendered famous to 
geologists from the long continued labours of Dr. Lycott, who 
obtained over 320 species of organic remains from the strata. t 
It is difficult now to recognize the particular beds described by 
him, but as he observes : " The shelly weatherstones which con- 
tain the well known Minchinhampton fossils, appear to extend over 
very limited areas in large useful blocks, and with testacea entire ; 
thus it has happened that nearly the whole series of beds in one 
quarry are shelly, and produce large blocks of stone, and in 
another neighbouring quarry a large portion of the whole mass 
wanting these features is useless for economic purposes. . 
Even in the larger of the two quarries now used upon Minchin- 
hampton Common, the uppermost or planking bed changes its 
condition very materially between the two extreme ends of the 
section, losing all its testacea towards its southern extension." 
It is not surprising then, that the section recorded by Lycett 
differs materially from that open at the time of my visit, about 30 
years afterwards. This no doubt arises in great measure from 
the fact that beds split up differently according as they are subject 
to atmospheric influences, thus forming freestone at the base, 
wall-stone nearer the surface, and rubble on top. 
The following is an account of the principal quarry at Minchin- 
hampton, from my notes of 1886 : 
FT. Iy. 
8- Bubble- - -"| 
7. Thin -bedded compact 
limestone and sandy >5 to 6 
beds. [=Dry Wall 
Stone] - -J 
6. Hard pale and smooth limestone 
with scattered oolitic grains, 
and with hollows due to 
Upper Division. <^ decomposed Corals - 1 
5. Wedge-bedded oolite, pale buff 
or white, and shelly ; exhibit- 
ing honeycombed weathering 
* Amberley Heath, a second name for Minchinhampton Common, gives name to 
the genus Amberleya, described by Morris and Lycett, Supp. to Gt. Ool. Mollusca, 
p. 19. 
t J. Lycett, The Cotteswold Hills, 1857, p. 93, and Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc., 
vol iv. pp. 185, 186. 
