VOL. XVI.(3) |. EXCURSION—STINCHCOMBE HILL 213 
Between Stinchcombe Hill and the peninsula-like Uley Bury, is 
a large gulf-like hollow with a number of conical hills at its mouth. 
These hills were once part of a long straggling upland-mass, which 
has been dissected and denuded to form Downham Hill, Peakéd 
Down, Cam Long Down, and Uley Bury. These hills have beauti- 
fully smooth grass-clothed slopes, and form the most conspicuous 
features in an excellent exhibition of the results of denudation. 
The Lower, Middle and Upper Lias, Inferior Oolite, Fuller’s 
Earth and Great Oolite, once extended much further west, across the 
Severn, and on to the older rocks beyond the river. Out of them 
this portion of the valley has been excavated, principally by the 
Severn and its tributaries, which are still engaged in widening the 
valley and causing the recession of the Cotteswold Hills. When the 
valley had come to assume very much its present aspect, the sand 
and gravel-deposits of the vale were laid down upon the irregular 
surface of the Liassic clay. 
The South Cotteswolds extend from Lansdown, near Bath, to 
Stroud. In the neighbourhood of Bath they are not so high as 
farther north. This is due, partly to the dip, and partly to the in- 
creased thickness of the Inferior-Oolite beds as they are traced 
northwards. In the Stancombe Quarry, and other workings nearer 
the point of Stinchcombe Hill, is seen the sub-division called the 
Upper Zrigonza-Grit, and below it, it is known that there is present 
at Stinchcombe, a considerable thickness of freestone, the sandy 
ferruginous limestones called the Sczsswm-Beds, and the Opaliniforme- 
Bed. But in the neighbourhood of Bath the Upper Zvégonda-Grit 
rests directly on the sands without any such intervening beds. As 
the rocks are followed to Stroud the Upper Zrigonza-Grit becomes 
yet more widely-separated from the Cotteswold Sands, for at Rod- 
borough Hill the Lower Z7rigonza- and Buckmani-Grits have come in 
between it and the freestone. Therefore the first point to notice in 
the Inferior-Oolite geology of Stinchcombe Hill is, that there is a 
non-sequence between the freestone and Upper Zrigonia-Grit. 
An inspection of the Stancombe Quarry on the eastern side of 
Hollow Combe revealed the upper portion of the Upper Z7igonia- 
Grit, with a layer of oysters on top, succeeded by a marly layer, 
which is on the horizon of the celebrated Upper Coral-Bed. From 
this layer a number of rare echinoids have been obtained. Above is 
the local Clygeus-Grit—the basal portion. Passing into the working 
to the north-west, attention was directed to a grassy slope separating 
_ the two excavations, and it was remarked that it indicated a small 
fault, the beds to the north of it being let down. Consequently, 
higher beds, namely, the White Oolite—the equivalent of the Azadbacta- 
limestones of the Doulting-Bath district—were encountered ; while 
above, and just below the turf, were seen the Rubbly Beds. Mr 
Richardson stated that he thought that here and there on the common 
must be remnants of Fuller’s Earth, for the soil was frequently very 
clayey.*. From this point the position of the Marlstone, marked by 
I See Proc. Geol, Assoe., vol. xx, pt. 7 (1908), pp. 526-529, 
R2 
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