The Range of the Palæozoic Rocks beneath Northampton

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Abstract
I. P revious K nowledge of the U nderground G eology . T he first investigation into the underground geology of Northamp-tonshire, or the strata lying immediately beneath the thick deposit of the Liassic series, consisting of limestones and clays, which covers the county to a large extent, was made in the year 1836. A company was then formed and a shaft sunk near the village of Kings-thorpe, about two and a half miles N.E. of the town of Northampton, for the purpose of reaching the Coal-measures, which, upon the advice of practical men, it was thought could be found at no great depth below the surface, ”though competent scientific individuals, as Mr. Smith, the father of English geology, and Mr. Richardson, then of the British Museum, expressly denounced it as a mistaken enterprise“. An account of this shaft (fig. 4, p. 496) has been given by the late Mr. S. Sharp, F.G.S., in the ‘Geological Magazine,’ from which I extract the following passage t :— “No accurate detailed section of the shaft was taken at the time; but at a depth of 210 feet from the surface, a water-yielding ‘Limestone rock’ in the Middle Lias (Marlstone)was pierced, which produced 36,000 gallons of water per hour. At a depth of 880 feet (as is stated in pencil-notes on a diagram in my possession, which notes are said to have been made by Dr. William Smith, F.R.S., F.G.S., &e.) the New Red Sandstone was reached, and a flow of brackish water of a like volume

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