FOSSILIFEROUS HAEMATITE NODULES IN LEICESTERSHIRE. 3 
earthy cone-in-cone formation ; pebbles of indurated clay 
and slaty rocks (sometimes much weathered), sand, clay (in 
lumps), &c. The mass is usually loose, but at one or two places 
is consolidated, and is locally termed “ small pox gravel,” 
“ poxen rock,” and “ grouse.” This condition prevails at 
Measliam, Oakthorpe, and Wooden Box. Again, it is com¬ 
monly found to contain a large proportion of clay or mud, 
sometimes of an orange colour, but more usually red or 
variegated. At the Coton Park and Linton Colliery a few 
years since a drift was made to win the main coal of Moira, 
and in driving it, at a depth of about 155 yards from surface, 
the Permian breccia was passed through. It contained blocks 
of rock as much as half a ton in weight, and I obtained one 
round nodule of hard lnematite from it. The localities that 
have hitherto furnished the largest number of specimens 
most rich in iron, and the hardest, are Measliam, Packington, 
Overseal, Willesley, and Blackfordby. At Measliam the 
stones (haematite) seem to occur in the breccia in patches 
or clusters rather than to be regularly distributed in the 
mass. As I have not met with luematite, of the peculiar 
mineralogical characters represented in these stones, in any 
other beds besides the Permian breccias, I conclude that the 
whole of this gravel-ore has been derived from these deposits 
of the district, and that those that occur in the alluvial 
accumulations have been washed from the outcrops of the 
so-called Permian series and carried or rolled far and wide 
by water, possibly assisted by ice. And now we will proceed to 
2.—A more detailed description of the stones.* 
(a) Shapes and sizes. 
(5) Structure, colour, hardness, fracture, magnetism, 
organic contents, &c. 
(a) These pieces of ore occur in a great variety of outward 
forms, the most common being those having a rounded or 
water-worn aspect. They are occasionally nearly spherical, 
finger-shaped, egg-shaped, more or less flat or disc-shaped, 
potato-shaped, angular, subangular, variously chip or splinter 
shaped, having usually at least one side more or less rounded 
and smooth. Their surfaces are often very smooth and even 
greasy-looking, and bright; but, as a rule, rough and uneven, 
also pitted, wrinkled, grooved, chipped, dimpled, scratched 
and bruised, and occasionally are completely perforated. 
Wart-like excrescences, weather-crusted (showing concentric 
zones of oxidation), cracks or flaws, cavities, &c., are not 
* 15y “stones” in this article is meant a vast variety of fragments, 
&c., of rock partaking or composed more or less of the mineral hamatite 
which I consider has had a common origin. 
