THE MIDDLE LIAS OF NORTHAMPTONSHIRE 
175 
THE MIDDLE LIAS OF NORTHAMPTONSHIRE. 
BY BEEBY THOMPSON, F.G.S., F.C.S. 
(Continued from page 113.) 
II. —Would the Water, go into the Middle Lias Beds? 
At the commencement of the discussion which this 
scheme for water supply provoked, at Northampton, I was 
asked for proofs that the surface water would go into the 
beds of the Middle Lias, from which the town supply was 
then obtained. It was asserted that the Marlstone Rock-bed 
yielded no water at the Spinney Well near Northampton 
because of the closeness of the rock, and that the beds 
below were all clays and did not carry water, and it was 
suggested that like conditions might exist in those parts 
where I proposed to place feeding wells. I had no personal 
knowledge of the condition of the Middle Lias beds at the 
Spinney Well, and the descriptions that have appeared of 
the Spinney Well in my own papers and those of Mr. 
Eunson were given by the sinkers of the well, and so are 
not very exact in the description of the beds. Such being 
the case, I think I may be permitted to doubt the adequacy 
of the reason assigned for getting no water, and to assign 
another, as I do later on. The fact that no water was 
obtained, however, induced me to consider the matter much 
more fully than I should otherwise have thought necessary, 
although this stands out as an isolated instance of finding the 
Marlstone of the county without water, amongst hundreds 
of others in which water has been found. In Part I. 
numerous sections are described, from which a good idea of 
the character of the Middle Lias beds in Northamptonshire 
can be obtained, and it will have been noticed that there are 
two sets of springs—the first being thrown out near the top, 
by the clays just below the Rock-bed; the second near the 
base of the Middle Lias. 
There is no one place where the whole of the Middle 
Lias beds can be seen, but on the whole, perhaps the best 
section is at Staverton, thirteen miles west of Northampton 
(see Part I., p. 211, Yol. VIII.), and anyone visiting this 
place will, I am sure, be quite convinced that there are two 
sets of springs in the Middle Lias of this part of the county, 
and that the sandy micaceous beds of the “ Margaritcitus” 
Zone are pervious to water. 
It is several years since I first suggested that these 
porous beds of the “ Margaritcitus ” Zone might be used as 
