On the Basement-beds of the Inferior Oolite of Gloucestershire

Abstract

During the last twenty years very little has appeared in the Journal of the Geological Society upon the Inferior Oolite of Gloucestershire. Prior to that period the Journal contains several valuable papers on that formation by able geologists, among whom I may mention the names of the Rev. P. B. Brodie, Dr. T. Wright, Professor J. Buckman, Professor E. Hull, and Dr. Holl. In addition to these papers we have the Memoir of the Geological Survey by Professor E. Hull, ‘The Geology of Cheltenham,’ and Dr. Lycett's ‘Geology of the Cotteswold Hills,’—works which have served as guides to the Cotteswold geologist to the present time. Indeed the work done between the years 1847 and 1860 was of such great extent and excellent character that it seemed as if there was nothing more to do in the Cotteswolds except, perhaps, to make from time to time some addition to the lists of fossils of the district; but after working over the Inferior Oolite of the Cotteswolds nearly a quarter of a century, and going carefully over the work of my predecessors, I am of opinion that another paper at least is required upon the lower beds of that formation before they can be thoroughly understood. My reasons for this opinion are :―(1) That the beds called “Pea Grit” in the Leckhampton section by Hugh Strickland, which name was adopted by Dr. Wright and the Geological surveyors, include in that term―erroneously, as I think―all the beds occurring betwwen the Pea Grit proper