The portion of this railway between Lincoln and Chesterfield, which has lately been opened for traffic, traverses the country in a nearly east-and-west direction; and, consequently, crosses at right angles to the strike all the formations from the Lias to the Coal Measures in succession. At its eastern end, owing to the general flatness of the country, there are not many deep cuttings; the strata are, therefore, not well exposed, and a considerable thickness of beds is not seen at all. West of the Trent the ground is more hilly, and cuttings are numerous; but the finest exposures are in the higher ground, along the outcrop of the Magnesian Limestone and Coal Measures near Bolsover and Chesterfield, where some very interesting sections occur. Commencing at the junction with the Great Northern Railway, about 1 1/2 mile west of Lincoln, the new railway crosses the level ground covered by the alluvium and gravels of the little rivers Till and Witham, which, according to a boring at the junction, have a thickness of about 20 feet. They appear to be rather more extensive than shown on the Geological Survey map, reaching about a mile westward to the foot of the slightly rising ground on which Skellingthorpe stands. At the station here about 6 feet of gravel (composed of pebbles and flints)is seen resting on Liassic clay; but the latter has not been excavated, and no fossils were found to indicate to what horizon in the Lias this clay belongs.