Inferior Oolite. 175 



northward by Beaminster and Sherborne to the east 

 end of the Mendip Hills and the neighbourhood of 

 Bath, where it forms the flat tops of the scarped hills 

 intersected by so many winding valleys. From thence, 

 in a long narrow strip, it runs on by Wotton-under- 

 edge, Dursley, and Painswick, in Gloucestershire, near 

 which, on the flat-topped Cotswold Hills east of Chel- 

 tenham, it broadens, and more or less forms great part 

 of the wide plateau that extends from Burford to the 

 neighbourhood of Chipping Camden. Beyond this 

 region it narrows, and finally thins away, and as a 

 limestone disappears in Oxfordshire, a few miles north- 

 east of Chipping Norton, where I shall leave it for a 

 time. 



It chiefly consists of yellow limestone, and along 

 with other limestones of the series is called Oolitic, for 

 in many cases they consist of concretionary bodies 

 about the size of a pin's head, compacted like the eggs 

 that form the roe of a fish (egg-stone) cemented in a 

 calcareous matrix. One of the most typical sections 

 occurs near Cheltenham, on the summit of the bold 

 escarpment that overlooks that town. There, at the 

 base, the Oolitic grains are often as large as peas, and 

 the rock is locally called pea-grit. 



The whole is apt to be fossiliferous, abounding in 

 Lamellibranchiate molluscs, Limas, Pectens, Oysters, 

 Cardiums, Pholadomyas, Trigonias, and others need- 

 less here to name ; and of Brachiopoda, Terebratulas and 

 Rhynchonellas are exceedingly numerous. Gasteropoda 

 also occur in profusion, including species of the genera 

 Pleurotomaria, Natica, Littorina, Patella, &c. Be- 

 lemnites. Ammonites, and Nautili are found in pro- 

 fusion, together with genera and species of sea-urchins, 

 such as Cidaris, Pseudo-diadema, Pygaster, &c. 



