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V.—On the Ferruginous Sands of Buckinghamshire, with Remarks on the Distribution of the equivalent Strata

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 May 2009

J. Morris
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Extract

The coarse ferruginous sands at the base of the Cretaceous series, in the countries of Bedford and Cambridge, have of late years attracted considerable notice, not only as sources of iron ore, but also of phosphatic matter. To these deposits the attention of geologists has been directed, and among other valuable papers, may be mentioned some by Messrs. Seeley and Walker,1 who have treated of their general physical characters, and also of their interesting fossil contents. It may be useful to some of the readers of the Geological Magazine, who are interested in tracing out the range of this deposit, and the peculiar conditions under which it was accumulated in some parts of the area, to point out briefly its characters and contents in the adjoining county of Buckingham; i.e., around Aylesbury: more especially so, as these sands have been considered to be partly equivalent in time, or the marine conditions of the Wealden and Purbeck strata.

Type
Original Articles
Information
Geological Magazine , Volume 4 , Issue 40 , October 1867 , pp. 456 - 462
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1867

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References

page 456 note 1 Ann. and Mag. Nat. Hist., Aug., 1866; 07, 1867.Google Scholar Geol. Mag., Vol. IV. p. 199.Google Scholar Ann. and Mag. Nat. Hist., 07, 11., 1866; Aug., 1867.Google Scholar Brodie, , Geol. Mag., Vol. III. p. 153. Walker, Brit. Assoc. Dundee, 09., 1867. See also Original Article IV. in this number of the Geol. Mag.Google Scholar

page 456 note 2 A part of this district being uncovered by Drift or Boulder-clay, good sections of the Lower Greensand, Purbeck, Portland, and Kimmeridge clay may be seen, and a little to the north, in the railway cutting, the Oxford clay. See “General Sketch of the Geology of Hartwell,” London University Magazine, 06, 1856, p. 102.Google Scholar

page 457 note 1 Geol. Mag., Vol. IV. p. 199. Pl. IX.Google Scholar

page 457 note 2 Blocks of this stone, known as Hampden stone, have been extracted five or six feet in length, and used as ornamental stones, or rude pillars, as at Hartwell Park.

page 457 note 3 Geol. Trans., 2 ser., vol. 4, p. 285 et seq. See also ædes Hartwelliana.Google Scholar

page 458 note 1 This appears to be a variety of P. CornueUiana, d'Orb, and is probably identical with the P. Dallasi, Walker; a similar form occurs at Farringdon, and at Seend, in Wiltshire.

page 458 note 2 In going from the ‘Bugle’ to this section, we first observe the large stone-pit of Purbeck and Portland beds, uncovered by sands, which only set in as we ascend the hill towards Stone.

page 458 note 3 These concretions were used as ornaments in the neighbourhood. A large number may be seen built into the wall of Hartwell Park, as well as fine specimens of Ammonites giganteus: the wall itself is of Portland stone, from the adjacent quarry, and the date of building picked out with the Hampden stone. The sand has been extensively worked, and sent to Birmingham for glass making, the finer and whiter portions have realized Il. 1s. a ton, and other portions about 8s. to 12s. per ton. Large globes and prisms of glass, made from this sand, are in the Hartwell Museum.

page 458 note 4

page 459 note 1 Special report in reference to the supply of water for the Bucks Lunatic Asylum, 1856, p. 17. Mr.Prestwich, remarks “that the effective permeable beds of the Lower Greensand are 200 feet thick, that they occupy an area above and below ground of 4,600 square miles, that a mass of only one mile square and one foot thick will hold more than 60,000,000 gallons of water, and some idea may be then formed of the magnitude of such an underground reservoir.”—“Water-bearing Strata,” p. 179.Google Scholar

page 459 note 2 Dr.Fitton, , Geol. Trans., Vol. iv. p. 285, et seq.Google Scholar Holloway, , Phil. Trans. 1723, Vol. xxxii. p. 419. Prestwich Water Bearing Strata, p. 85.Google Scholar

page 459 note 3 Seeley, , Ann. and Mag. Nat. Hist., Aug. 1866.Google Scholar Walker, ibid., Aug. 1867. Brodie Geol. Mag., Vol. III. p. 153.

page 459 note 4 Conybeare and Phillips, Outlines, p. 138. Fitton, , Geol. Trans., Vol. iv. p. 294.Google Scholar

page 460 note 1 Walker, , Geol. Mag., Vol. IV. p. 309.Google Scholar

page 460 note 2 Sedgwick, , Lecture on the strata near Cambridge, 12., 1861, p. 21.Google Scholar

page 460 note 3 Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc. vol. xxiii. p. 243.Google Scholar In the year 1859, during a visit to Mr. , Morel, at Bayons, Manor, I traced out, with Mr.Smith, T. J. F.G.S., of Hull, the characters of the Lower-green Sand around Tealby, from Hainham to Caistor, and pointed out the existence of the pisolitic iron ore then unworked at Walesby, and arrived at the conclusion that these beds and their fossils, as well as those at Speeton, should be carefully compared with the Hilstkon and Hilsconglomerat of N. Germany (Hanover), and not with the Portland, as suggested by a geologist. I collected many fossils, such as the large Pecten, Ancyloceras, Trigonia, Belemnites, etc, some of which are now in the British Museum. A general sketch of the geology of the locality mentioned was given in the introductory lecture that I had the pleasure of giving at the opening of the Tealby Institute (Nov. 29. 1859), established by the late Tennyson D'Eyncourt, Esq. I subsequently examined, in company with Mr. Prestwich and Mr. S. Sharp, the district around Spilsby and Horncastle, etc., and found in the sands at the former place specimens of Coniferous wood with Terade borings and also phosphatic nodules.Google Scholar Mr., R. Godwin Austen considered the speeton clay to be the representative of the Hilsthon (Proc. Geol. Soc. vol. iv. p. (196). See also Roemer, Die Versteinerungen des Norddeutschen Kreidegebirges, Hanover,) 1840.Google Scholar

page 460 note 4 Outlines of Geology, 1822, p. 164.Google Scholar

page 460 note 5 Fitton, , Geol. Trans., Vol. iv. p. 280.Google Scholar Estuarine sands with Paludina, Brodis, Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc., Vol. xxiii. p. 198.Google Scholar

page 461 note 1 Fitton, , Geol. Trans., Vol. iv. p. 275.Google Scholar Phillips, , Journ. Geol. Soc., Vol. xiv. p. 236.Google Scholar

page 461 note 2 Austen, R. A. Godwin, Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc., Vol. vi. p. 464.Google Scholar D. names Sharpe, ibid., Vol. x. p. 176.

page 461 note 3 Oultines, p. 142.Google Scholar

page 461 note 4 Conybeare, and Phillips, , Outlines, 1822, page 152; Fitton, , Geol. Trans. vol. iv. p. 141.Google Scholar

page 461 note 5 See Geol. Mag. 1866. Vol. III. p. 15.Google Scholar

page 461 note 6 This valuable building stone was extensively used in early Ecclesiastical architecture, and is now largely worked for the building of most of the modern London churches and for other purposes.

1 From the quarries of this stone belonging to Mr. Bensted of Maidstone, the fine specimen of Igiumodon Mantetti, now in the British Museum, was obtained in 1834.Google Scholar

2 Fitton, , Geol. Trans. vol. iv. plate 8.Google Scholar

3 Meyer, C. J. A., “On the Correlation of the Cretaceous Rocks of the South-east and West of England,” Geol. Mag. vol. iii. 01. 1866;Google Scholar Fitton, , “Comparative remarks on the Sections below the Chalk at Hythe, Kent, and Atherfield, Isle of Wight Geol. Journ. vol. i. p. 179, May, 1844.Google Scholar Dr.Fitton, shews that the prominent points of difference between the sections of the Kentish coast and the Isle of Wight, are considerable variation in mineral composition,—the almost total absence of Limestone at Atherfield, and the greater thickness of the Lower Green-sand at this latter place (by 346 feet) than at Hythe.Google Scholar

4 Where the 'Tourtia,' or part equivalent of Lower Green-sand, in Belgium, overlies the denuded surface of the contorted beds of Palaeozoic limestone, numerous borings of mollusca may be seen, as at Montigny-sur-roc and other places.

5 The former existence of the Upper Wealden strata, in the interior of England, is rendered probable by the erosion of the Purbeck beds, in many places, where the Lower Green-sand comes in contact with them. Fitton, , Geol. Trans, vol. 4, p. 325. See also Mr.Walker, , An. Mag. Nat. Hist., August, 1867.Google Scholar