100 
The Mountain Limestone Shales, Mountain Limestone and 
Millstone Grit come next in ascending order, but, tilted up 
by the older rock on which they rest, they dip north and south 
from the central ridge. 
Next in upward succession follow the Coal Measures so largely 
developed on the north of the Mendips, but the existence of 
which to the south is still a matter of speculation. At the 
close of the Coal Measure period there occurred a great break, 
when the Mendips were upheaved, and their upturned summits 
washed away; after which followed the deposit of the secondary 
rocks on a comparatively level surface, consisting in ascending 
order of the New Red Sandstone or Keuper, the Rhetic or 
Penarth beds, the Lias, Inferior Oolite, Fuller’s Earth and Rock 
and the Forest Marble. 
EXCURSION TO OLDFORD AND SPRING GARDENS NEAR FROME. 
‘ On the north side of the road stretching from Spring Gardens 
to Oldford, there exists a narrow strip of Old Red Sandstone, and 
associated with it a patch of Mountain Limestone which have a 
special interest. Although familiar with the same formations in 
other parts of the Mendips, the writer had never had an oppor. 
tunity of examining these the most easterly outliers of the group, 
which are here seen for the last time in the south of England 
before they pass beneath the secondary rocks. The areas in 
question lie in a narrow belt between the road to Oldford and 
the Froom river, and they may be examined in a few quarries by 
the road side, but their exact outline is difficult to trace. 
Farther west on the Mendips the Old Red Sandstone generally 
lies at a high elevation, attaining at Black Down a height of 
1067 feet above the sea; butin passing to the eastward the ridge 
gradually descends to the level of the surrounding country, then 
passes beneath the overlying strata to reappear no more on this 
side of the channel, although it is met with again in France and 
Belgium. 
