THE MIDDLE LIAS OF NORTHAMPTON SHIRE. 
19 
“fault’’ which runs right to and most likely beyond North¬ 
ampton, a “fault” which cuts out much of the Middle Lias 
on one side of the Nen Valley between the points named. 
At Staverton, situated about a mile north of Catesby, there 
are several ponds in the village the water of which is thrown 
out and held up by the clays immediately below the rock-red, 
the rock-bed itself being seen around them. It is this 
character of the underlying clays that makes the rock-bed 
itself such a reliable source of water supply. The 
“ Margaritcitus ” clays and marls seem all of them to be very 
pervious to water; we have, therefore, in this character of 
impermeability a rough means of distinguishing the “ Spinatus ” 
clays from the “ Margaritcitus ” ones, although the two are 
very similar in appearance. Of course these remarks only 
apply to the district under discussion. 
The ponds at Staverton are situated as follows:—First, 
about a quarter-of-a-mile along the Daventry Road ; second, 
just at the corner of the Daventry Road, and in the village ; 
third and fourth, close to each other on the N. side of 
Staverton ; fifth, about the centre of the village. 
Some four miles north-east of Staverton we came across 
some very fair sections of the “ Spinatus ” Zone, near to the 
village of Welton. Here an outlier of Middle Lias is met 
with, in which a small patch of Upper Lias has been preserved 
by a “ fault.” About a quarter-of-a-mile from Welton, towards 
Braunston, near to the junction of two roads, is a small pond, 
one side of which shows the following section :— 
Section at Welton. p e et in. 
1. —Soil and sandy clay, not calcareous ... ... 2 0 
2. —Irregular rubbly ironstone,somewhat concretionary, 
containing Myacites, Plcuromya costata ( rather 
abundant), Protocardium truncatum, Aviculce, dc. 1 3 
3. —Sandy and highly micaceous clay, not calcareous, 
containing Avicula incequivalvis, Protocar dium 
truncatum, Gasteropods [Actcconina ?), Tere- 
bratula? ... ... ... ... ... ... 3 0 
This section is situated near to two others, showing only 
the rock bed, and can be only a little below them; also the 
lower bed seems to be fairly impervious to water. Hence, I 
conclude, they belong to the “ Spinatus ” Zone, and that they 
may be “ C ” of the typical section. None of the fossils 
found were sufficient to decide the zone to which the section 
belonged, though I think that one of the fossils I managed 
to spoil in extracting from the soft matrix was Terebratula 
punctata, and this I have never yet found in the “ Margaritatus ” 
Zone of the district. 
