The Geology of Rutland

(RUTLAND.] !)04 (POST OFfiCE Oakham Soke Hundred :-Belton, Eraunston, Erooke, MEMBERS OF PARLIAMENT FOR THE COUNTY: Clipsham, Eg-leton, Gunthorpe, Langham, Oakham-Deans Right Hon. Gerard James Noel, P.c. Catmos, Oakham; hold (with Barleythorpe), Oakham-Lordshold, Wardley. and 31 Bruton street w, Carlton & Junior Carlton clubs, Wrangdike Hundred :-Barrowden, Eisbrooke, Caldecott, London s.w.; and George Henry Finch, esq., Burley-on Glaston, Liddington, North Luffenham, South Luffenham, the-Hill, near Oakham, Rutlandshire. :Morcott, Pilton, Seaton, Stoke Dry, Thorpe-by-Water. The polling places appointed pursuant to " The 'Ballot The Lunatic Asylum for the counties of Leicester and Act., 1872,'' on the 5th day of August, .1872, are :-Greetham, Rutland~ a large and handsome building-, standing on a Ketton, Oakham, and Uppingham. healthy situation, is a short distance from Leicester. County Gaol, Oakham, Rev. Robert Tabraham, M.A., Coroners for the County.-William Keal, Burley road, chaplain; Thomas Garton, governor; Mrs. Ilarriett Garton, Oakham {for the Northern division), and William Sheild matron. Uppingham (for the Southern division). • THE GEOLOGY OF RUTLAND. WITH the exception of a few papers by Professor Morris, about here is much bolder and more picturesque, than where the Rev. P. B. Brodie, and Dr. Porter, but little bad been the same beds occur further south, in Northamptonshire. published concerning the geology of this county till the It is indeed comparable in many parts to that of the Cottes year 1872, when an admirable geological map of the district wolds. The name Lias is a corruption of the word "layers," by J. W. Judd, F.G.s., was issued by the Government as prono1mced by workmen in describing the alternate bands Geological Survey. This was followed by a descriptive of limestone and shale which so frequently occur in this memoir by the same author, who has treated the subject so formation. thoroughly and fully, as to leave future workers in the THE OoLITIC FORMATION.-Tbe word oolite is from district hut little employment except the filling in of de- the Greek" oon," an egg, in allusion to the rounded grains tails. To Mr. Judd's work we must refer all who wish for of which so many rocks of this age appear to be composed. full and minute details, only professing here to give a brief It.~ lowest member in Rutland is the Northampton Sand. sketch of the structure of the county. In !ltudying the In some places this is merely a white shelly sand, but the rocks of any district, we must be careful not to confuse the lower part has usually been converted into a rich ironstone irregular beds of drift clay and gravel, which may or may not rock, which when dug in deep wells is of a blue or green be scattered over the surface, with the true subjacent beds. colo,n, but where it is near the surface and has been ex In the geological maps the Drift has not hitherto been posed to the action of the weather it is of a rich brownish coloured, but in a separate series now being prepared it is hue. In the former case the iron is in the condition of a specially marked. To agriculturists its presence is very carbonate, but in the latter it is an oxide. The upper white important, as of course where present it determines the sands contain plant markings, and have been named the character of the surface soils. Leaving this " Drift" for Lower Estuarine Series. Rfter consideration, we shall examine first the stratified About Uppingham the Northampton Sand is 30 feet thick. rocks of the district. No igneous or metamorphic rocks, It thins out eastwards to 2 or 3 feet at Barrow den, and then such as slate or granite, are found in Rutland. The whole disappf'ars altogether. From the valley of the Welland county is composed of Liassic and Oolitic strata, two series near Harringworth due north to Grantham, and on to the which are often coupled, aud described as the Jurassic Humber, the hard beds of ironstone of the Northampton system, from their development and exposure in the Jura Sand cap the steep slope of Upper Lias Clay already men mountains of Switzerland. They form a remarkably tioned. The result is the bold escarpment facing westwards, regular alternation of clays and limestones, and stretch known in Lincolnshire as the "Cliff,'' which can be traced across England from the Yorkshire coast to Dorsetshire. for full 90 miles, and on the top of which runs the cele The total thickness of the various beds exposed in Rutland- brated Roman road known as •' Ermine Street." Numerous shire is about 450 feet, and were they now horizontal as springs issue from its junction with the impervious Lias when deposited on the sea-bottom, it is evident we could Clays. It forms a rich light soil, especially adapted for the know little or nothing about the lower members. The same growth of spring crops. It is probably an estuarine deposit tilting, however, as described in the case of Leicestershire, 1 formed in the delta of a great river flowing from the west, l1as caused the strata to dip eastwards about 1 in 120, or The question of the origin of the iron in the Northampton 44 feet per mile. Sand is of great interest. It was probably not there when As might be expected the harder strata, mostly limestones the beds were firot deposited. But during long ages after, containing iron, form hills and escarpments, whilst the clay water containing carbonate of iron in solution percolated beds form the slopes of valleys. The name of the county, slowly through the beds, depositing the carbonate of iron Rud, or red-land, is derived from the colour of the ferruginous on the grains of sand as it did so. In that part which has 1imestones, which also tinge the slopes with their down wash. since been exposed to the weather, the carbonate has been Traees of former workings for iron are frequent, the ma~ses chavged to an oxide of iron, and it is only where this has of slag which often cover the surface of newly-cleared fields been effected that the ore is worth working. The surface, being very striking. This industry died away with the too, has been broken up, and the lighter portions carried destruction of the forests and consequent lack of charcoal, away, so that the ore is usually richest in iron near the but is once again being revived. top. THE LIAssrc FORMATION.-The oldest rocks found in The Lincolnshire Oolite Limestone, which comes next Rutland belong to the above theN orthampton Sand, is so named because it attains Lower Lias.-Theseoccur in thenorth-westofthecounty, its maximum thickness and development in the county near Whissendine, where the banks of the river Eye, the whence it takes its name. At Stamford it is 80 feet thick; railway cuttings, and new brickyard, afford sections of clays southwards, it thins out, and disappears altogether near with nodules containing ammonites of this age. Harrington, and eastwards, near Water Newton. North- Middle Lias.-The Marlstone Rock-bed forms producth·e wards it thickens towards Lincolnshire; whilst westwards it corn land about Oakham and elsewhere, the clays above has been so denuded that we are ignorant of its original and below it being in pasture. It is here 8 or 9 feet thick, and extent, though it prohably stretched nearly to the river contains numerous fossils, as Rhynconella, 1'erebratula, Soar. At its base, in certain localities, there are found beds and Belemnites. The railway from Luffenham to Melton of a thin sandy limestone, which, after being exposed to the runs through the fertile vale of Catmos, whose bottom is action of frost, split into thin flags suitable for roofing formed of this marlstone, while the sides are long slopes of purposes. The>~e are the well-known Collyweston Slates; Upper Lias Clay, capped on the east by oolites. About they are especially favoured hy Sir Gilbert Scott and other Teigh it forms a bold escarpment. Eastwards it is exposed architects for church roofs. They contain some interesting in the valley of the Gwash at Braunston and of the Chater shells, as Pinna cuneata, Pterocera Bentleyi, &c. During near Withcote, projecting like a shelf on the sides of the tl1t>ir deposition the sea-bed was gradually sinking, for the valleys. bed next to be described-the Lincolnshire limestone proper, The Upper Lias is in this district a bed of clay about is largely constituted of coral reefs and shell banks. 'fhe 200 feet thick, which is often dug for bricks. It occurs main mass stretches in a band, some three or four miles chiefly in the west of the county from Edmundthorpe to broad, across the east of the county, from Barrowden, Tixover Caldecot, and owing to its great local thickness the scenery and Stamford on the south, to Thistleton and Stretton on .

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