RHyETIC BEDS. 249 



Bridgend, grey argillaceous limestones, shales, and hard cherty 

 limestones and conglomerates occur. The mass of these beds, 

 which rest on the upturned edges of the Carboniferous Limestone, 

 belongs to the Lower Lias. At Sutton there is a series of fine- 

 grained white limestones (Sutton Stone), with bands of chert, 

 and conglomerate at the base, together about twenty feet thick, 

 which Mr. E. B. Tawney in 1865 claimed as Rhaetic.^ Mr. Moore 

 however, obtained from them Ammonites angidatus (about 20 feet 

 above the base of the beds) and other species which indicate their 

 Liassic age, -while on stratigraphical grounds Mr. Bristow maintained 

 that the Sutton Series passed into the Southerndown Series, and 

 that both were of Lower Lias age.^ Mr. Tawney subsequently 

 accepted these views. The Sutton Stone has yielded many Corals, 

 at Brocastle and Ewenny, south-east of Bridgend, and at Cow- 

 bridge. These include Motitlivaltia, Thccosmilia and Astrocainia. 

 Dr. Duncan remarked that they indicate a zone which in the 

 Alpine Trias would be deemed St. Cassian. Mr. R. F. Tomes as 

 early as 1863 expressed the opinion that the Rhsetic Beds of 

 Brocastle, Sutton, etc., might be represented by an interval during 

 which no deposit of earthy matter took place, and that the fauna 

 became mixed up with that of the true Lias, which was subsequently 

 deposited.* 



In Gloucestershire the section at Garden Cliff, near Westbury- 

 on -Severn, and not far from Newnham, is one of the most famous 

 exposures of the Rhcetic Beds. The upper beds comprise cream- 

 coloured limestones, marls, and clays, with Modiola minima, Ostrea 

 Liassica, etc., eight or nine feet thick ; beneath is a hard white 

 marl (with Estheria-zoxi€), a conspicuous feature in the cliff. 

 Lower down come seven feet of grey marls with many fossils, and 

 these rest on the Black Shales, about twenty feet thick, \N\\}i\ Avicida 

 coniorla and Cardium Rhcrticnm. In the lower part of these shales 

 are two or three Bone-beds, and also a layer with Pidlastra arettkola 

 (the Ful/as/ra-hed) ; at the base is a thin Bone-bed containing 

 teeth and scales of Fishes, and coprolites. These beds rest on the 

 Grey Marls, which pass downwards into the red marls of the 

 Keuper.^ 



Wainlode Cliif, on the Severn, between Gloucester and Tewkes- 

 bury; Coombe Hill, near Cheltenham;^ and Aust Cliff, west of 

 Thornbury in Gloucestershire, are well-known sections. Aust 

 Cliff has long been noted for its conglomeratic Bone-bed, which 

 contains teeth of Ceratodus and other Fishes, as well as coprolites, 



^ Q. J. xxii. 70; see also Dr. P. M. Duncan, Ibid. p. 89, xxxiii. 13, and xl. 375. 



2 Q. J. xxiii. 511 ; see also Prof. R. Tate, Ibid. p. 307. 



^ Q. J. xxiii. 199. 



* Q. J. xxxiv. 180 ; xl. 356 ; see also W. C. Lucy, Proc. Cotteswold Club, 

 1885 ; and R. Etheridge, Trans. Cardiff Nat. Soc. 1872, vol. iii. 



^ Etheridge, Trans. Cardiff Nat. Soc. vol. iii. (1872), and Proc. Cottesv/. 

 Club, iii. 218 ; Wright, Q. J. xvi. 378 ; W. C. Lucy, P. Geol. Assoc, iv. 171 ; 

 J. Jones and W. C. Lucy, Proc. Cottesw. Club, ii. 188. 



^ H. E. Strickland, Proc. G. S. hi. 585 ; Wright, Q. J. xvi. 379 ; Brodie, 

 Fossil Insects, pp. 58, etc. 



