GEOLOGICAL FORMATIONS NEAR DUNSTER. 145 
ally passing in thin lamine through the intermediate layers, 
and thus connecting the successive strata together. While 
valuable as an article of commerce, it also adds considerably 
_ tothe striking appearance of the a on the sea-coast in 
which it abounds. 
‚But we must leave the sandstone, and pass on to the 
Lras. And, in order fully to comprehend the transition, 
we must imagine the bed of the sea to be again changed, its 
waters to be drained off, the red sandstone deposits become 
dryland. In fact in this neighbourhood the red sand-stone 
series with its marls constituted the lowland shore of the 
Lias sea. In this new sea a new deposit takes place, and 
a record of each change is faithfully preserved in the im- 
perishable archives of creation. Yea, a record, not only 
of each change, but of the varying forms of organic life 
peculiar to each period, and, not unfrequently, of the agen- 
cies, chemical and dynamical, by which the changes were 
produced. The sea-cliffs between Watchet and Sherton 
Bars afford most interesting and instructive sections of this 
portion of the earth’s crust, and show, with great accuracy 
and minuteness, how the strata succeeded each other, and 
point most unmistakeably to many of the disturbing in- 
fluences to which this series of rocks has been subjected. 
The natural sections presented in the clifis on the 
coast clearly show that the Z%as was deposited upon the 
red-sandstone. In very many places the strata lie con- 
- formably, one above the other; in other places they 
seem to abut against each other, yet always in circum- 
stances which clearly indicate the action of great dis- 
turbing forces. The disturbance in the stratification of 
the rocks, technically termed a Jault, as presented in 
the section of the cliff near Lilstoke, is only one of a 
great many, the traces of which are left in the change 
voL. vI., 1855, PART II. y\ 
