104 
PRE-CARBONIFEROUS FLOOR OF THE MIDLANDS. 
detected in them, but they may be assigned with much 
probability to the Cambrian period. The Owtliorpe boring, 
six or seven miles south of Nottingham, passed through sixty- 
six feet of Lower Lias and Rliaetic beds, and 1,000 feet of the 
Trias, below which the coal-measures were found. 
At South Scarle, between Newark and Lincoln, the Trias 
occurred in full force. The section here gives 
Drift . 
Feet. 
. 10 
Keuper Waterstones 
Feet. 
.... 244 
Lower Lias . 
. 65 
Bunter Sandstone .. 
.... 542 
Rliostic Beds . 
. 66 
Permian Beds. 
.... 519 
Iveuper Marls . 
. 573 
Coal-Measures ? .... 
.... 10 
The pebble-beds of the Bunter were here entirely wanting. 
At a depth of 2,019 feet deep red indurated marls with 
nodules of haematite were found, which are believed to be 
upper coal-measures. 
Of borings east or west of the line which we have now 
described, only two or three need be mentioned. On the east, 
at Harwich, the Oault was found to rest—at a depth of 
1,030 feet—upon dark slaty rocks, which the presence of a 
Posidonia proved to be of Lower Carboniferous age. 
On the west, two or three borings were put down in the 
neighbourhood of Market Boswortli, in West Leicestershire, 
between 1878 and 1880. These proved that the coal-measures 
do not extend uninterruptedly beneath the new red marls as 
was originally supposed. Indurated and jointed shales varying 
in colour from red or purple to blue or grey (probably the 
Stockingford Shales) were found and pierced to a considerable 
depth without being bottomed. At Burford, near Oxford, a 
considerable thickness of the Trias was found to rest upon 
coal-measures, which were reached at a depth of 1,184 feet. 
The cores brought up from these borings in many cases 
show clearly the dip of the old rocks—usually at a considerable 
angle, 30 degrees or more—but unfortunately we are unable 
to determine from them the direction of the dip, for the cores 
are of necessity moved and, perhaps, rotated many times 
before they can be brought to the surface. By letting down a 
compass which could be fixed to the top of the core, and then 
fixing the direction of the needle by means of a stop, actuated 
by an electric current, it would seem to be possible to find 
out this important point. 
It is most desirable that the borings which have been 
made should be supplemented by others, put down at points 
selected by a committee of those geologists who have 
specially studied the subject. The expenses might be 
defrayed partly by Government, partly by a rate (voluntary 
or otherwise) levied upon the landowners of the district, 
