Ixvi. CHESIL BEACH AND FLEET MEETING. 



yet with a considerable irregular distribution of flaggy false-bedded limestones 

 often characterised by flattened fossils and fragments of oysters in fact a flaggy 

 shell-limestone. It is essentially a shallow marine formation, and may be traced 

 into Oxfordshire, where some of the flaggy limestones in Wychwood Forest are 

 hard enough to take a polish ; hence the term Forest Marble. One of the objects 

 of the excursion should be to endeavour to find the junction between the Fuller's 

 Earth and the Forest Marble. 



It has been laid down by the Geological Surveyors that the actual base of the 

 Forest Marble in this district is a rich fossil-bed, about two feet thick, known as 

 the JtJiynchoHclIa-bed from the abundance of Rhynch. various. But there are 

 plenty of other fossils in this bed ; and this makes the north shore of Herby- 

 leigh, just opposite, capital ground for the collector. But these are merely 

 fossils that have fallen from the little cliff on to the shore. What we want to do 

 is to locate the bed itself, and so to prove its relations to the underlying Fuller's 

 Earth, of which about 26 feet are said to be displayed in the section on the 

 north coast of Herbyleigh. So far we have dealt with facts, but now eomes a 

 bit of speculation. The geologist is bound to ask what has become of that fine 

 limestone formation, the Great or Bath Oolite, in the midst of this mass of 

 clays and marls and calcareous flags? We should expect to find it at the 

 junction of the Fuller's Earth and Forest Marble, but its non-appearance is not 

 altogether unexpected, for we know that a few miles south of Bradford the 

 Great Oolite, as a distinct limestone formation, has thinned out to a feather- 

 edge, and thus Dorset is deprived of the finest building stone of Bathonian 

 age. The question then naturally arises, does any portion of the Forest Marble 

 of Dorset represent the great Oolite. Perhaps the Bradford Encrinite 

 (Apiocrinits Parkinsoni) may serve to throw some light on the subject. This 

 fossil, as we know, is characteristic of the Bradford clay, which is generally 

 regarded as the basal member of the Forest Marble in that part of Wiltshire. 

 The position of the Bradford Encrinite in the Forset Marble of Dorset is, 

 therefore, a matter of importance. The President has frequently found its 

 remains on the south coast of Herbyleigh, but not, I believe, on the north coast. 

 (Assent on the part of the President.) Hence we may conclude that the 

 Rhi/Hchoiiella-'beii, which is held to be the base of the Forest Marble in this 

 district, does not represent the Bradford Clay, but that we must look for the 

 equivalent of the Bradford Clay higher up in the Forest Marble series of Dorset. 

 Tliis view seems to correspond with the general section of the Forest Marble 

 of this county as given by Mr. H. B. Woodward, who places the position of the 

 Bradford Encrinite almost in the middle of the series. If, therefore, the 

 equivalents of the Bradford Clay are to be sought in the middle of the Dorset 

 Forest Marble, may not the lower portions, including the RhynekoneUa-lxd, 

 partially represent the Great Oolite of the Cotteswolds ? Mr. Hudleston concluded 

 by expressing a hope that members might secure a good bag of fossils from 

 Herbyleigh, but time did not admit of this. If, he said, a boring was made at 

 this spot we should, after passing through a hundred feet of Fuller's Earth, 

 come upon the Inferior Oolite. 



