Vol. 54.] CEjrOMANlAJT AND TUKONIAN NEAR HONITON. 239 



20. On an Outlier of Cenomanian and Turonian [equivalent to 

 Lower and Middle Chalk] near Honiton/ with a Note on 

 HoLASTER ALTUs, Ag. By A. J. Jukes-Browne, Esq., B.A.^ 

 F.G.S. (Bead March 23rd, 1898.) 



[Communicated by permission of the Director-General of 

 H.M. Geological Survey.] 



The existence of an outlying tract of Chalk in the parish of 

 Widworthy, near Honiton, has been known for many years, but no 

 description of it has ever been published, although it is the most 

 westerly inland tract of Chalk in England : the only more westerly 

 patches being those on the coast. 



It was known to Dr. Eitton,^ who mentions the occurrence of a 

 particular stone called grizzle by the quarrymen *in a large pit or 

 quarry at the bottom of the Chalk, near Sutton and Widworthy,' 

 remarking also that 'it contains green particles, and does not 

 burn to lime.' 



The outlier of Chalk is marked on De la Beche's geological map 

 published by the Geological Survey in 1845. In 1874 the district 

 was re-surveyed by Mr. Ussher for a new edition of the Survey 

 map,^ but he found that the quarry referred to was disused and 

 overgrown. 



My object in visiting the locality last year was to ascertain 

 whether the succession of beds was similar to that on the coast, 

 in which case the Chalk would be Middle Chalk (Turonian), and 

 the Lower Chalk would be represented by quartziferous limestone 

 and calcareous sandstone ; or whether it included anything like the 

 more ordinary kind of Lower Chalk, such as occurs at Membury and 

 Chard. 



The geographical position of this tract is about 4^ miles south- 

 west of Membury, 3 miles east of Honiton, and about 7 miles from 

 the coast near Beer Head. It occupies high ground, from 400 to 

 500 feet above the sea. 



The Sutton quarries are g mile south-west of Widworthy Church, 

 and are very large excavations, one pit being 50 or 60 feet deep, 

 but entirely overgrown by grass and copsewood, so that hardly any 

 chalk was visible at the time of my visit. In the most northerly 

 pit, however, was a small exposure of hard calcareous sandstone; 

 and, on making enquiries, I learned that this calcareous sandstone 

 was the grizzle, but that the best stone, and that for which the 

 quarries were formerly worked, was a freestone in the Chalk. 



^ [There is no Lower Chalk as ch alk near Honiton, and the present writer 

 uses the term Cenomanian for the arenaceous beds which appear to be the 

 equivalents of the Chalk Marl in this part of Devon, and to correspond with 

 the zone of Ammonites Mantelli in the West of France; see Quart. tJourn. 

 Geol. Soc. vol. hi (1896) p. 171.— April 22nd, 1898.] 



2 Trans. Geol. Soe. ser. 2, vol. iv, pt. ii (1836) p. 234. 



^ This re-survey has not yet been pu])lished. 



Q. J. G. S. No. 215. T 



