Morris—Oolites of Northampton, $-c. 99 I have sought to commemorate the successful labours of the late Mr. Bean in exploring the fossiliferous beds of the Yorkshire Oolites, by dedicating this genus to him. EXPLANATION OF PLATE IV. Fig. 1. Beania gracilia, sp. nov. From a specimen in the Bean Collection, British Museum. Fig. 2. Young female cone of Zamia muricata, Willd. Fig. 3. Section of the same, showing the young seeds attached to the scales. Being a longitudinal section only a single seed is seen connected with each scale. Fig. 4. A single scale, with its two ripe seeds, of Macrozamia spiralis, Miq. Figs. 1, 2, and 3 natural size. Fig. 4, two-thirds the natural size.-

II.—GEOLOGICAL NOTES ON PAETS OF NOBTHAMPTON- AND LINCOLN- SHIBES.

By J. MOBEIS, F.G.S. A LTHOUGH the geology of the Midland Counties has been con- J_JL siderably elucidated, still there appear to be some points con- nected with the position and nomenclature of the Lower Oolites which require re-examination. Having long since published some observations upon this district,1 in which the position of certain beds was somewhat doubtfully given, I am desirous to recall attention to the conclusions then arrived at by myself, as well as to others bearing upon the district subsequently published.2 The geologist who has personally examined the strata between the Upper Lias and Cornbrash, as they range between Gloucester- shire and Yorkshire, or who may have become acquainted with them from the writings of Strickland, Hull, Lycett, and Wright, in the south-western area, and of Phillips,Williamson, Oppel, and Leckenby, in the northern, must be aware of the great lithological (and in part palseontological) differences which exist in the two districts, and would probably infer, that beds of an intermediate character might be found in the countries lying between them.3 In the south-western area the Lower Oolitic series attains its normal development both in formations and thickness, and presents a character almost entirely marine. This series consists mainly of limestones with intercalated sandstones, and clays, rich in Testacea, Corals, and Echinoderms, with occasional traces of land-plants in the Stonesfield slates of the Cotteswolds, which become more abundant in the similar beds of Oxfordshire, where they are associ- ated with Eeptiles, Fishes, and Terrestrial Mammalia. The series attenuates rapidly as we proceed easterly, (as pointed 1 See Brit. Assoc. Eeports, 1847, p. 127, and Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc 1853, Vol. ix., p. 317. 2 See Memoirs Geol. Survey of Great Britain, 1860, Description of Sheet No. 63, S.E,and 1861, Description of Sheet, No. 53, N.E. 3 See the interesting paper by Professor Phillips, " On some comparative sections in the Oolitic and Ironstone series of Yorkshire, Quart. Jour. Geol. Soc. Vol. xiv,— "Neither can the Bath type of the Oolites be adapted to the midland districts of England without some important changes." (P. 86). Also Geol. York. i. p. 130. 100 Morris—Oolites of Northampton, Oolite, which attains a thick- ness of 250 feet at Leckhampton, is reduced at Stonesfield, near Oxford, to 15 feet. The Fullers Earth and Great Oolite are subject to similar variations. The former, as well as the Bradford clay, becoming thicker to the south, while the sands below the Inferior Oolite also vary in thickness in the same area. Professor Phillips has alluded to a similar variation in the York- shire area, " The great series of sandstones, shales, coal plants, and ironstones lying above the Lias and below the Oolite of Gristhorpe, 500 feet thick in the Peak and the great range of cliffs at Stainton- dale, is only 270 feet thick near Thirsk, and is further reduced near Bransby, until on the banks of the Derwent it is scarcely traceable." (op. cit. p. 97). The whole thickness of the south-western formation, where fully developed, is upwards of 600 feet. The marine conditions and cal- careous character of the strata in this area is strongly contrasted with that of Yorkshire, where the limestones are extremely thin, and are intercalated with sandstones, clays, ironstones, and shales, contain- ing an abundance of land-plants such as Cycads, Ferns, and Coni- ferse, with beds of " Moorland Coal" accompanied with JJnio and Estheria: the whole series having a somewhat corresponding thickness of 600 to 700 feet. Thus the difference of condition in these two districts of deposition is well-marked by the abundance of organic and chemically-formed deposits (limestones) in the one area, and of inorganic or mechanically-formed deposits (shales and sandstones) in the other. Besides which, in the latter area, the geological sequence between the Lias and Cornbrash is not com- plete, for the associated thin limestones contain fossils from which it is inferred that the whole series should be classed with the Inferior Oolite, the equivalents of the Great Oolite, Bradford Clay, and Forest Marble being there wanting; this view is taken by Dr. Lycett,1 and also by Dr Wright.8 Dr. Oppel, however, whilst he includes the Lower Sandstone, Shale, and impure Limestone and underlying Dogger with the Am. Murchisonce and Am. Hvmvphriesianus zones of the Inferior Oolite,3 appears to consider the Upper Sandstone and Shale as belonging to the Bath Oolite formation.4 On the other hand, Dr. Oscar Fraas says, " In the north of England (Yorkshire), the lowercoal or moorland sandstone consist of a great local sandstone formation, with a large quantity of fragments of plants which is placed between rthe Inferior Oolite and the " Grey" Limestone of Phillips. But the Grey limestone of Yorkshire is merely what the Fuller's-earth of the south, the Marnes a foulon and the Marnes vesuliennes also are, the 8 of the Swabian " Brown Jura." 5 Professor Phillips, however, from the comparative sections given in the paper before alluded to, seems to be of opinion that the Oolite of Gristhorpe is the equivalent of the Bath Oolite, and that the over- 1 Pal. Sdo. Suppl. to Gr. Ool. Mollusca, p. 115. The Cotteswold Hills, p. 74. * Quart. Journ. Geol. Soe. 1859. D'Orb. Prodrome, 1850. » Die Jura-Formation, p. 326, 333. * Ibid, p. 439. 6 Quart. Journ. Qeol. Soc. vii. Translations, p. 60. Morris—Oolites of Northampton, group of Mollusca, which are considered in part to be characteristic of the Inferior Oolite, associated with similar species of Cycads and Ferns (Pecopteris polypodioides), as occur in the Oolitic shales of Yorkshire, whilst the Upper White Limestones include a fauna in which those forms are more rare. In some quarries, as near Ketton, a line of separation is marked in the Oolitic rocks by definite perforations caused by iAthodomi, which clearly indicate a period of arrested deposition in this old sea- bed, during which these mollusks lived and inhabited the surface of the 'subjacent rock, already partly consolidated. It is above these upper beds that the laminated Clays and Shales containing plants, with one or two species of Oyrena, showing their probable fiuvio-marine condition, occur, as seen at Ketton and 1 See Die Jura-Foi-matioften, 1856-5 8, p. 357. * The Cotteswold Hills, p. 73. Morris— Oolites of Northampton, 8fc. 103 Casterton, near Stamford, and in the Essendine and Danes Hill Cutting of the Great Northern Eailway.1 The similarity in position of the ferruginous rock, between the Lias and White Oolites, is seen in the Spittlegate Cutting, and to the south of it at Ponton, in the same railway; also in the neigh- bourhood of Lincoln, where the Lias, which occurs in the Valley of the Witham, is overlain by the ferruginous bed, which, in its turn, is covered by compact white Oolitic limestones, yielding durable stone for building purposes2 (the " Silver-bed" and Roestone-bed), and containing Mollusca of Inferior Oolite age, as Ceromya Bajoci- ana and other species. Further north, as well known to Professor Phillips, the ferrugi- nous beds at Brough, on the Humber, containing numerous Rhyn- chonella spinosa, and other shells, are followed in that area by beds known as the Cave Oolite, which is the equivalent of the limestones of Whitwell and Weston. Fossils of the Lower "White Limestones of Morcot, Stamford, Denton, etc. : Natica cincta, Phil. Nerincea cingenda, Phil. N. triplicata, Br. Lucina Wrightii, Op. L. despecta, Phil. Ceromya Bajociana, D'Orb. Pholadomya fidicula, Sow. Hinnites abjectus, Phil. Gervillia Hart- manni? = 6. radians, Lye. Lima Pontonis, Lye. L. bellula, Lye. L. cardiiformis, Sow. Macrodon Hirsonensis, D'Arch. Trigonia Phil- lipsi, Lye. T. hemispherica, Lye. Tancredia axiniformis, Phil. Ino- ceramus obliqum, Lye. Astarte elegans, Sow. A. minima, Phil. Pecten pumilus, Lam. Gucullcea cancellata, Phil. Ostrea sulcifera, Phil. Go- niomya v— scripta, Sow.—Pygaster semisvlcatus, Phil. Hyboclypus agariciformis, Forbes. Stomechinus germinans, Phil. Echinus perlatus, Desm. Psevdodiadema depressum, Ag. Echinopsis rotata.—Pecopteris polypodioides, Pterophyllum comptum, Palceozamia pecten. Fossils of the Colly weston Slates : Pecten pumilus, Lam. (P. personate, Ziet.) Avicvla elegans, Munst. A. Braamburiensis, Phil. Hinnites velatus, Goldf. Gervillia acuta, Sow. Pinna cuneata, Sow. Modiola Sowerbyana, D'Orb. Astarte excavata, Sow. Trigonia costata, Sow. T. compta,~Lyc. Gucullcea cancellata, Ph. Pholadomya fidicula,Sow . Ceromya Bajociana, D'Orb. Cardium Buck- mani, Lye? Lucina Wrightii, Op. Goniomya literata, Sow. Homomya crassiuscula, Lye. ? Lingula Beanii, Phil. Perna rugosa, Goldf.— Pterocera Bentleyi, Lye. Alaria PhUlipsi, D'Orb. Brief and imperfect as is this notice, I think that the facts pre- viously stated suggest that the position of certain parts of the Lower Oolites should be reconsidered, and that attention should be drawn to the following points. 1. That the red or ferruginous rook, immediately overlying the Lias, and extending over the district watered by the Nen and the

1 Morris, Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc, ix. p. 330. 8 "W. Bedford, Account of the Strata of Lincoln, Mag. Nat. Hist. 1839, p. 553. The Cathedral is built of the " silver-hed" and of the beds below it; the Eoestone was used for the construction of Newport Arch, built by the Romans. 104 Morris—Oolites of Northampton, 8fc. Welland, belong, by its fossils, to the Inferior Oolite, and, probably, represents in time part of the " Dogger beds" of Yorkshire. 2. That the Sands and concretionary calcareous Sandstones known as the Collyweston and Wittering slates, as well as a part, if not all, of the overlying Oolite (Ponton, Corby, Stamford, Barnack, Morcot,) also belong, by their fossils, to a higher zone of the Inferior Oolite, and may be the equivalent in time of the beds overlying the Dogger. 3. That the Upper White Limestones and Shales, over certain parts of the area of Northamptonshire, are the representatives of the Great Oolite. 4. That in the Upper and Lower Oolites of-Lincolnshire, above the red rock, there are very few Cephalopoda, and that the lower zone is marked by the prevalence of Nerinwa, Astarte, Taneredia, Quen- stedtia, Trigonia, Cardium, Cuculltea, Alaria, and a large Natica, as- sociated with fragments of Pterophyllum and other Cycads, and Pecopteris polypodiodes, a species largely represented in the Oolitic Shales of Yorkshire. They have been placed provisionally upon the horizon of the Great Oolite, but their fauna would seem rather to connect them with the Inferior Oolite,1 Lycett. 5. That from the general fossil contents of these beds, they pre- sent characters intermediate to the more truly marine conditions of the south-western or Gloucestershire area, and the Fluvio -marine and Terrestial deposits of Yorkshire. 6. That the Collyweston slates contain chiefly a molluscan facies, while those at Stonesfield comprise a rich and varied fauna of shells, Crustacea, insects, fishes, reptiles, mammals, and many plants. The following are some of the localities where sections may be observed and fossils obtained, in illustration of the preceding remarks:— 1st. Southern Area.—Pits around Blisworth, where the Lias, Eed Eock, and Oolites may be seen. The quarries around Northampton, and northwards at Kingsthorpe, Moulton Eoad, and at Duston, beyond Dallington. The pits around Wollaston where the Upper Oolite with T. digona may be seen. Higham Ferrars, Baunds, Stanwick, and Oundle, (where Ophio- derma GriesbacMi was found. The sections near Wellingboro', Kettering, Finedon, etc. The quarries around Wansford, where Dr. Fitton mentions that the fern referred by Lindley and Hutton to Lonchopteris Mantelli, was found, from which it was inferred that traces of the Wealden occurred in Northampton.2 2. Northern Area.—The pits around Stamford, Casterton, and Ketton. The quarries at Collyweston and Easton, and further west at Morcot and Luffenham. Unfortunately the collection made by me, which would have afforded incontrovertible palaeontological evidence of the beds in this 1 See a paper by Mr. Horton in the Geologist, vol. iii, p. 249. 2 Fitton, Geol. Trans., vol. iy. p. 309, but corrected at, p. 383*, and also in G«ol. Jour., TOI. xi. p. 337. H. A. Nicholson—On the Lake District. 105 district, is now in great measure dispersed, but the re-consideration of the sections made at that time in traversing the district, suggest the position assigned in this paper to the ferruginous Oolite and the Collyweston slates. Some of these observations, which I now recall with so much pleasure, were made in company with Captain L. L. B. Ibbetson, F.G.S., Mr. J. Bentley, Mr. Samuel Shaip, F.S.A., F.G.S.,'M. Triger, and the late Dr. Oppel, who has embodied part of his obser- vations in his great work on the Jura formation. m.—ON THE EELATIONS BETWEEN THE SKIDDAW SLATES AND THE GEEEN SLATES AND POBPHYBIES OF THE LAKE-DISTKIOT.

By HENRY ALLBTNE NICHOLSON, D.SC, M.B., F.G.S. rTVEEE Skiddaw Slates, or Lowest Silurian Eocks of the Lake- _L district, are succeeded upwards by a great series of ashes with interbedded traps and porphyries, to which the name of " Green Slates and Porphyries " has been applied, and it has always been believed that the relations between the two were those of perfect conformity. As early, however, as the year 1867 I was led, from certain phenomena which I had observed, to express .the opinion that " whether the Green Slates are really conformable with the Skiddaw Slates is a question which admits of doubt, though data are wanting to arrive at a definite conclusion." (Geology of Cum- berland and Westmoreland, p. 33.) In the beginning of November, 1868,1 discovered what seemed to be a marked want of conformity between the Skiddaw Slates and the Green Slates, the localities where this occurred being the eastern side of the mouth of the vale of St. John, the west side of Derwentwater (near Lowdore), and the mouth of Borrowdale. As these phenomena had not been previously noticed by any former observer, and as they appeared to me to be of considerable importance, I have made a systematic investigation of the subject, and have arrived at the following results. Beginning with the main area of the Skiddaw Slates, in the north-western portion of the Lake-district, the upward boundary of the slates can be traced to the south of the area from Troutbeck on the north-east to near Egremont on the north-west, a distance of more than twenty-five miles. Along this line the relations between the Skiddaw Slates and the overlying Green Slates are as follows: In the course of Troutbeck Beck, close to the little village of Troutbeck, the upper, soft, and shaly beds of the Skiddaw Slates are seen on the western side of the stream, dipping S.S.E. at 65°. These are overlaid in the eastern bank of the river, by the basement beds of the Green Slate Series, consisting here of cleaved felspathic ashes, dipping S.S.E. at 50°. About three-quarters of a mile further up the river the upper bed of the Skiddaw Slates are again 1 It is interesting to record that Mr. Sharp has, during many years, collected largely both in the neighbourhood of Stamford and Northampton from these beds, and has thus enlarged our knowledge of the Oolitic fauna of this district.