DORSET-SOMERSET DISTRICT. 51 
Wootston Quarry.—Seven miles north by east of Sherborne, and three and a 
half miles south-east of Castle Cary. About seventeen feet of limestone are worked 
in this quarry, the whole of which is probably in the Parkinsoni-zone. It is note- 
worthy that the Cephalopod facies hitherto so characteristic of No. 1 District 
here begins to fail us, and immense quantities of Brachiopoda characterise the beds. 
As the same facies is still better shown in Grove Quarries, together with probably 
a more complete section, I will at once proceed to their description. 
Grove Quarrins (see Profile, p. 52).—One and three quarter miles east-south- 
east of Castle Cary. The South Quarry is nearer to Shotwell Farm than to Grove 
Farm. The face is not so well weathered, but here, as in the other quarry and 
also at Woolstone, the fossils are mainly obtained on fissure surfaces. The stone 
itself will not work so as to admit of the fossils being extracted along the partings, 
like the stone of Bradford Abbas and elsewhere. Hence, only those specimens 
which weather out are obtained. This peculiarity would seem to hold good 
throughout the same horizon in No. 2 District likewise. 
This particular quarry has the advantage over the others that it seems to afford 
a tolerably complete section of the Inferior Oolite Limestone at this point. The 
basal bed, only a few inches thick, is most probably in the Lower Division resting 
directly on the sands. For palzontological purposes, therefore, everything outside 
the Parkinsoni-zone is atrophied in this immediate neighbourhood. The brown 
limestones in thick blocks, measuring about nine feet, constitute the most 
interesting feature, and if these beds require a name we might call them the 
Trigonia Grits. The rare presence of Am. Parkinsoni at the base is quite sufficient 
to make us feel safe as to the geological position. Roughly speaking, we may 
represent this fine mass of fossiliferous rock as being on the horizon of P, of the 
coast-section, and as the representative of the Upper Trigonia Grit of the 
Cotteswolds, which it does to a certain extent prefigure. It is, however, richer 
in Gasteropoda than the Upper Trigonia Grit and thus helps to maintain the 
character of the Dorset-Somerset District in spite of its poverty in Cephalopoda. 
In the north quarry, which is more properly speaking Grove Quarry, the Trigonia 
Grit is about the same thickness (nine feet), and the joint face of these beds was 
one mass of fossils before the chisels of collectors began to deface the entablature. 
The species of Gasteropoda are clearly those which distinguish the lower beds 
of the Parkinsoni-zone throughout the district, and have certain affinities with 
some of those of the Hwmphriesianus-zone, but hardly any with the Gasteropoda 
of the Lower Division such as are obtained in abundance at Bradford Abbas. 
Owing to the rough nature of the matrix the specimens cannot be placed in the 
first rank as to condition. Varieties of Cerithium sub-scalariforme and the so- 
called ©. contortum are plentiful. The latter is especially characteristic of this 
horizon, and may be traced even into the Cotteswolds. 
