Page:Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society of London, vol. 26.djvu/322

214 PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. [Jan. 12, of Felstone, and measured 4 ft. x 1 ft. 8 in. x 1 ft. 4 in. The derivative fossils are chiefly Cardinioe, gryphites, and corals from the Lias beds, with belemnites &c from the Oolite. Fragments of silicified wood, such as is found near Coventry, in the Permian Sandstone, are found in the gravel round Warwick.

I am indebted to Mr. R. C. Tomes, F.L.S., for the following remarks on the local distribution of the corals occurring in the gravel : — " In the fluviatile gravel of Leamington (on the river Leam) a species of Montlivaltia occurs pretty frequently, which is so plentiful in the upper beds of the Lower Lias at Fenny Compton, about 10 miles distant. Lower down the Avon, at Welford, below Stratford- on-Avon, the gravel contains a small Lias coral, Montlivaltia rugosa, found in the corresponding bed in the Lower Lias at Honeybourne, about 5 or 6 miles distant. At Fladbury are found specimens of the Mesozoic Septastroea Eveshami and Haimii from the adjacent 'Angulatus- beds' of Chadbury. The specimens of Septastroea show but little signs of attrition, whilst a Silurian coral (from Charlton ballast- pit) appears much water-worn. Near Upton Snodsbury I obtained a specimen of Septastroea from the beds of gravel, which contain but few flints, in the valley of the Bow, where also mammalian remains and freshwater shells have been discovered."

There are only two localities in the valley of the Avon, between Rugby and Tewkesbury, in which deposits of brickearth have been met with, as far as I am aware, viz. at Bengeworth, near Evesham, and at Bricklehampton Bank, near Cropthorne, before alluded to. In the latter the workings have been abandoned for many years past, and are now entirely covered up. The beds of brickearth and gravel at Bengeworth are exposed in a brick-yard on the north-west side of Knowle Hill, where they rest on a bed of blue Lias clay at a distance of about half a mile from the river. I have been unable to ascertain their superficial extent, in consequence of the absence of any exposure of them, excepting at the locality in question. On the north-east side of the pit a bed of unstratified quartzose flinty gravel belonging to the " Lower Series " appears to be cut off towards the south-west by the brickearth. The height of the surface of the loam above the river is somewhere about 60 ft. The valley thereabouts is narrow and deep. On the north-east the loam has been removed, and the excavation filled up in part. The dip of the lower gravel-bed is 5° N.E. and S.W. (I have omitted the dips in the preceding descriptions, having found, by repeated trials that, when taken over so limited an area as is exposed in a ordinary gravel-pit, they were not to be relied on.) I believe the mammalian remains were found chiefly in the lower gravel-bed, and that the specimens of Unio ovalis occurred in the loam. A section taken near the centre of the pit exhibited the following arrangement : —

ft. in.

(1) Light-red loam, containing local seams of fine quartzose flinty gravel 20 0

(2) Quartzose flinty gravel and sand 2 6

22 6