Page:VCH Northamptonshire 1.djvu/35

 GEOLOGY Section at Gayton Top of bed from sea-level Upper Lias, including soil Middle and Lower Lias Rh^tic : White Lias (14 feet), Black Shales (22 feet). Grey Marls ? (6 feet) Keuper : Sandstones and marls (53^ feet). Littoral deposits (22^ feet) Old Land Surface Lower Carboniferous : Limestones, sandstones, shales and marls Old Red Sandstone ? Coarse red sandstones, grits and marls, dipping at an angle of 45° Greatest depth The Carboniferous Limestone Series There is no uncertainty with respect to the presence of rocks of Lower Carboniferous age in Northamptonshire ; they were proved to be 190 feet thiclc at Gayton, and at Northampton a boring was stopped after passing through 45I feet of them. It is interesting to note that in each case they indicated, by an eroded top covered with fragmental deposits, an Old Land Surface. Fossils were fairly abundant, and included fish remains, cephalopods [Orthoceras), lamellibranchs, corals, and wood. The boring at Northampton, referred to above, was also a trial one for water by the Northampton Waterworks Company, made in 1879, and below we give an abbreviated section similar to the last, compiled from information in Mr. Eunson's paper.' Section at Kettering Road, Northampton Thickness in feet Top of bed from sea-level Northampton Sand, mostly slipped material Upper Lias, partly denuded Middle and Lower Lias Keuper : Sandstones, conglomerates, marls, and clays (Littoral deposits) Old Land Surface, dipping at angle of I 5° Carboniferous : Red and white dolomite (25 feet), red and yellow sandstones, limestones and shale (20^ feet) Greatest depth 851 The Coal Measures So far the Millstone Grit and the Coal Measures have not been found in Northamptonshire. Very plausible reasons have been given for supposing that they were never deposited over a considerable area of ' Henry John Eunson, ' The Range of the Palaeozoic Rocks beneath Northampton,' Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc. (Aug. 1884), vol. xl. p. 492. 5