420 LOWER OOLITIC ROCKS OF ENGLAND! 
Prof. Judd remarks that the cutting on the Great Northern 
branch railway at Belmesthorpe, between Stamford and Essendine, 
" not only furnishes an excellent section of the beds of the Great 
Oolite Limestone, but enabled the former collector of the Survey, 
Mr. Richard Gibbs, to obtain an interesting series of its charac- 
teristic fossils. North of Essendine, about which place there are 
numerous exposures of the limestones and oyster-beds, we find 
rocks exposed in this formation which yield a greater variety of 
fossils than is usually found in the beds of this age. At this point 
large masses of coral (Isastrcea) are very abundant in the Great 
Oolite Limestones." 
At Belmesthorpe large specimens of Nautilus Baberi occurred 
in abundance ; a fact of interest when we remember that this 
form is so conspicuous at Bedford. Lamellibranchs were also 
obtained in great variety, including Macrodon hirsonensis. 
In the Dane's Hill cutting further to the north-west, Prof. 
Judd noticed that " the lowest bed of the Great Oolite Limestone 
presents some interesting characters, which are worthy of remark. 
It constitutes a mass of about 3 feet thick, the upper layer ol 
which contains many long cylindrical spines of echinoderms, 
especially of Acrosalenia."* 
The Great Oolite Clay was shown in the railway-cutting at 
Banthorpe, south of Essendine, and from it Sharp obtained a fine 
vertebra of Cctiosaurus. Immense bones of the same Saurian, 
were also obtained in the Essendine cutting, probably from the 
equivalent strata. t The horizon may be compared with that 
at Kirtlington and other localities near Oxford, where similar 
remains have been found. (See p. 323.) 
In the neighbourhood of Witham-on-the-Hill there are many 
pits exhibiting the beds of the Great Oolite Series, among which 
Prof. Judd records the following section between that village and 
ManthorpeJ : 
FT. IN. 
fSoil 09 
Oyster-bed- - - - - 9 
Dark coloured, stiff clay - 2 
Oyster-bed with layers of " Beef " 9 
Great 
Oolite Clay 
and 
Limestone 
Marly parting 
Oyster-bed with layers of " Beef" - 1 
Marly parting. 
Oyster-bed with " Beef " - - 1 6 
Oyster-beds - - - 1 3 
Marly parting. 
Bed of hard, solid, blue-hearted lime- 
stone, crowded with shells, etc., including 
Strophodua (tooth). Perna rugosa. 
Lima duplicata. Pteroperna plana. 
Modiola imbricata. Trigonia costata. 
Ostrea subrngulosa. 
The limestone was quarried for road-metal. 
* See Judd, Geol. Rutland, pp. 209, 210, 211. 
t Sharp, Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc., vol. xxix. pp. 261, 262 ; Morris, Ibid., vol. ix., 
p. 332. 
J Judd, Geol. .Rutland, p. 212. 
