Notes on a Section of Leckhampton Hill

Abstract

The well-known promontory of the Cotswolds, called Leckhampton Hill, affords probably the best locality in Gloucestershire for studying the relative position of the various beds of the inferior oolite and subjacent lias. From its great height and steepness, the entire series of the oolite is admirably exposed to view, and the extensive quarries from which Cheltenham has been mainly built, afford every facility for examining the formation. The geologists of Cheltenham and the neighbourhood are well acquainted practically with the subdivisions of the strata and their organic contents, but no exact definitions or precise measurements of these strata have, I believe, ever yet been made. Mr. Buckman's ‘Chart’ contains a section of Leckhampton Hill, and is valuable for its descriptions of the mineral character and organic remains of some of the beds. But it does not attempt to exhibit all the subdivisions of the oolite, or to show their absolute and relative thicknesses. It appeared therefore desirable that a more elaborate survey should be made, and with this object I gladly availed myself of the aid of the Rev. A. D. Stacpoole of Oxford, whose skill in the use of surveying instruments was of great service. Where the strata were exposed in a vertical escarpment and were accessible, they were accurately measured, but in other cases their thickness could only be ascertained by means of the sextant. By putting together the varied observations thus obtained, we constructed the section given at p. 242, supra . It is drawn on a uniform