Had not the limits necessarily of such a dissertation as this and of my own time forbidden, by extending my field some nine or ten miles to the north and north-east of Northampton I might have added to my General Section another member, second only (if second) in importance to, and perhaps as full of interest as, the Northampton Sand itself.
The great bed of limestone which marks the country about Stamford, and, traversing Rutland and West Lincolnshire, attains to its greatest development in the last, and which abounds in characteristic fossil forms of the Inferior Oolite, approaches Northampton on the north to a little south of Harrington, and on the north-east to the neighbourhood of Kettering, and is seen no more in the direction of Northampton or in the southern districts of the county.
During the last summer, I had the privilege of visiting, with Professor Ramsay, Mr. Etheridge, Mr. Judd, and Mr. Howell, a quarry in this limestone at Glendon Wood, near Kettering ; whence, on that occasion, were obtained Pygaster semisulcatus, Natica leckhamptonensis, Nerinoea cingenda, Serpula socialis, Pholadomya fidicula, Ceromya bajociana, Lima (large new species occurring also in the ironstone), Cardium cognatum, Trigonia hemisphoerica, Gervillia acuta, Pinna cuneata, and other fossils, sufficiently pointing to the Inferior Oolite as the formation to which this bed is to be assigned.
The position of this limestone, with reference to the Northampton Sand, appeared to be indicated by the neighbouring Glendon cutting of the Midland Railway in that sand, but had already been determined conclusively, as I believe, by Mr. Judd.
The place of this limestone of the Inferior Oolite, in reference to my General Section, is above C and below B, at XX, in the line of unconformity (see fig. 5) — thus marking the range upwards of the Inferior Oolite in this Midland district, establishing the line of demarcation between the Great Oolite and the Inferior Oolite in the neighbourhood of Northampton, and representing a period of marine as intervening between two periods of variable estuarine conditions.
I mention this fact incidentally only, as having but a secondary bearing upon the subject proper of my present Memoir. Should it ever be my lot to complete the scheme set forth in my Introduction, I shall go fully and carefully into an examination of this limestone, and into the question of its position with regard to higher beds.
In conclusion, I wish to acknowledge and to tender my thanks for the aid and information which I have derived from many geologists, naming especially Professor Morris (who first inoculated me with a love for geology, from whom I derived my initiatory knowledge, and, during many a pleasant excursion, much subsequent information), Professor Ramsay, Mr. Etheridge (who has kindly identified the majority of my local fossils), Mr. Judd (who has given me much assistance and original information), Dr. Lycett, Mr. H. Woodward, Mr. Carruthers, Dr. Hall, Mr. Davies (British Museum), and, lastly, but particularly, Dr. Wright, who has done me the great favour of writing an account of my new starfish, as a fitting accompaniment (as he kindly deems it) of this my maiden contribution to this Society.
