EXCURSION TO CHARNWOOD FOREST
The geological localities to be visited in this excursion are the following—
I. Barrow-on-Soar.[817] Lias limestone.—The quarries at this locality are celebrated for the organic remains that have from time to time been obtained from the limestone. Bones of Ichthyosauri and Plesiosauri (see [p. 669]), fishes (Dapedius, [p. 603]), leaves of cycadeæ, and fossil wood, together with ammonites, terebratulæ, &c. may generally be obtained.
[817] There is a station at Barrow, and the pedestrian may be put down within a short distance, by the railway.
Although at the very foot of the plutonic rocks, and on the verge of the grand focus of volcanic action which erupted the syenitic masses of Charnwood Forest, the strata in this spot appear to have suffered but little disturbance. But this phenomenon is in accordance with what occurs in other volcanic districts. For, as M. Constant Prevost remarks, volcanoes may open across all the strata, without occasioning great derangements; thus, at Limagne, Aurillac, and Puy (see Wond. p. 269), the tertiary strata have preserved their horizontality, even around the vents through which issued the volcanic matter that covered those countries with numerous cones of eruption.
II. Mount Sorel. Granite and Syenite.—The road from Leicester ascends a ridge of Triassic or New Red strata, called Birstal Hill, from whence there is a fine view of the town. In the meadows on the left, some ruined walls, covered with ivy, mark the site, and are the only remains of the Abbey in which Cardinal Wolsey expired. Approaching Mount Sorel, an abrupt hill, with a mill on the summit, denotes, from a considerable distance, the geological character of the spot. There is a small Inn in the village, where accommodation may be procured. Visit the quarries, and also the establishment of Mr. Jackson, where the granite is worked into pillars, side-boards, &c.[818]
[818] An interesting account of this manufactory will be found in Sir Richard Phillips’s "Personal Tour."
The hill is about 120 feet in height, and 1,400 yards long; and is estimated to contain about two hundred millions of cubic feet of workable granite, above the general level of the district.[819]
[819] The granite resembles that of Aberdeen, but contains a larger proportion of felspar.
III. Swithland. Slate-rocks.—From Mount Sorel proceed to Swithland: as we approach the quarries, the employment of slate for every available purpose, in the footpaths, walls of cottages, &c., indicates the abundance of this material in the neighbourhood. At Swithland, the quarries are very extensive, and expose magnificent sections, from 100 to 120 feet thick, of strata of Slate, highly inclined; and forming one side of an anticlinal axis, the summit of which will be passed over in our route by Woodhouse. In one quarry, at the time of my visit, a series of nearly horizontal strata of red marl was exposed, lying unconformably upon the edges of the highly inclined beds of Slate. The Slate-rocks of Charnwood Forest have a single anticlinal axis, which strikes from NN.W. to SS.E.; and the axis of the adjacent coal-field of Nuneaton has a similar direction.[820]