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Three Days at Farringdon.—Position of Sponge-Gravel
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 17 March 2016
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Early in September of the present year, I accompanied my friend Mr. C. Evans in a short excursion to Farringdon, with a view to examining the well-known “Sponge-gravel” pits of Little Coxwell; our intentions being, besides collecting fossils, to trace, if possible, some positive connection, or otherwise, between these reputed Upper Cretaceous Sponge-gravels and the acknowledged Lower Greensand deposits of Furze Hill and Badbury Hill.
Taking up our quarters at Farringdon, we first visited the Sponge-gravel pit near the Windmill public-house at Little Coxwell, where we found a splendid section of the gravel exposed (see section 4), and in a few hours had collected a good supply of fossils;—dip of beds E. by N. 10°, resting, in part at least, upon Kimmeridge clay. Next day we went to Furze Hill, and found near the top of the hill the ironstone concretions described by Mr. Godwin-Austen (Quar. Journ. Geol. Soc, vol. vi. p. 456), containing numerous fossils, all of them, I believe, of Lower Greensand age. These concretions, for the most part, lie scattered about on or near the surface. In one place, however, we found a small section exposed, where the concretions occurred in position, imbedded in light-coloured sand. About fifteen feet lower down the hill, we found the same light-coloured sand, alternating with clay in thin layers, without concretions, and apparently unfossiliferous.
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