Page:Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society of London, vol. 26.djvu/474

 1. Additional Observations on the Neocomian Strata of Yorkshire and Lincolnshire, with Notes on their Relations to the Beds of the same age throughout Northern Europe. By John W. Judd, Esq., F.G.S., of the Geological Survey of England and Wales.

[Plate XXIII.]

Contents.

I. Introduction. II. Neocomian Strata of the Vale of Pickering. III. The Neocomian Iron-ores of Lincolnshire. IV. General Sketch of the Neocomian Beds of the North of England. V. Results of a General Comparison of the Neocomian Beds of Northern Europe.

(1) Heligoland. (4) Hanover. (2) Holland. (5) The Hartz. (3) Westphalia. (6) Brunswick.

VI. Conclusion.

I. Introduction.

In two previous communications * I have laid before this Society the result of detailed studies of the fine cliff-section of Filey Bay in Yorkshire, and of the range of hills forming the western flank of the Lincolnshire Wolds. In each of these memoirs I have especially dwelt on the presence and relations of certain beds, which are proved by their fossil contents to belong to the great formation known by the names of Neocomien in France and Switzerland, of Hils in North Germany, and of Biancone in Italy. In pursuing this subject on the present occasion I propose, — first, to describe the inland development of these beds in Yorkshire ; secondly, to furnish some additional particulars concerning the Lincolnshire beds; thirdly, to give a brief resume of the whole of the facts known regarding the nature and relations of the Neocomian strata of the north of England ; and, lastly, to state the results of a personal examination and comparison of these beds with their equivalents in North-western Germany.

II. Neocomian Strata of the Vale of Pickering.

On the completion of my study of the succession of strata exposed in the cliffs of Filey Bay, it became an object of much interest to me to examine and map, as far as possible, the inland development of the same beds (Neocomian, Portlandian, and Kimmeridge), with a view to the confirmation or correction of the conclusions I had then arrived at concerning their nature and relations. Unfortunately the whole district between the Wolds and moors of Yorkshire is so thickly covered with drift and alluvium as to render the examination of the underlying deposits a task of great difficulty.

The Vale of Pickering was first excavated during preglacial times, in the soft Neocomian and Upper Oolitic clays which intervene between the harder rocks of the Upper Cretaceous and the Lower


 * Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc. vol. xxiii. p. 227 (1867), vol. xxiv. p. 218 (1868).