176 MENDIP NOTES. 



E.ed Sandstone.* There is certainly no evidence of a great 

 fault in this two hundred yards. I can scarcely distinguish 

 a specimen I obtained from the older tip from one I obtained 

 from the more recent heap. There is, in fact, nothing to lead 

 one to sujDpose that of this continuous chain of pits some are 

 in the Millstone Grit, some in Lower Limestone Shales. 



Furthermore, all down the North-eastern slope of the 

 valley, as far as, and to a considerable distance beyond, the 

 1871 workings the sides of the hill are strewn here and 

 there with blocks of Millstone Grit. 



Is there any discordance of strike which would lead one 

 to suppose that the shales in the upper part of the valley 

 are of a different series from those in the lower j^art of the 

 valley ? No. The dips are high, nearly vertical in places ; 

 and the strike is nearly uniform N.W. and S.E. 



Is the lithological character of the beds markedl}^ differ- 

 ent ? No. The shales and sandstones of the coal-measure 

 tyjDC in the various old workings seem to have been on the 

 whole similar. There are nearly vertical shales in the 

 Priddy lane, which closely resemble nearly vertical shales 

 two hundred yards or more beyond the 1871 tip. 



I cannot but suppose that the similarity of some of the 

 sandstone to Old Red led to the insertion in the Survey pub- 

 lications of a strip of this rock. 



But here, as at Emborrow, I say, if Lower Transition fossils 

 can be produced from the shales, the question of the exist- 

 ence of these beds at Ebbor is at once settled. I have searched 

 for them in vain. 



I may here note that there is evidence of one more trial pit. 

 It is two or three hundred yards to the West of the entrance 



* The Rev. H. H. Winwood informs me that on lithological grounds 

 he was led to regard the sandstone which had been brought to sur- 

 face as Pennant or a rock of the Coal-measure Sandstone type. 



