'214 



nOT,OMlTIC CONfiLOMKRATE OF BIIISTOL. 



At Molls, wliicli is now a station on tlie Bristol and 

 Radstock and Fromo Branch, wo llnd rather a curious 

 devolopment. The Dolomitic Conglomerate lies partly 

 against the Millstone Grit and partly against tlic Mountain 

 Limestone, where the Millstone Grit thins out and disappears, 

 .but the Conglomerate is succeeded to the north by the In- 

 ferior Oolite, which lies directly against it. This Inferior 

 Oolite is an extension of the same formation which caps the 

 hills on both sides of the valley through which the before- 

 mentioned Bath and Evercreech Eailway runs, and which it 

 follows all the way from Bath to Badstock, tlio Oolite IVom 

 thence taking the direction of Mells, where it abuts against 

 the Dolomitic Conglomerate referred to. 



The salinity of the waters of tlie old 'I'l-iassic. lake in whicii 

 the Keuper Marls succeeding the Dolouutic Conglomerate 

 were deposited, is shown by the occasional j)seudo-morphs 

 of salt (as at Aust ClitF), and by the interstratified bands of 

 Gypsum. By referring to the section of the new tunnel 

 through Almondsbury ridgo, it will be seen that beds ol 

 Gypsum were rather extensively found throughout the Rod 



Marl, 



up 



to four inches in tliickncss, but disapi)earii 



approaching the Dolomitic Conglomerate. The Gypsum beds 

 were considered so extensive that overtures were made, by 

 a local mining prospector, to the railway company for per- 

 mission to work them, and also to sort that already brought 

 to the surface ; but, alter the terms wore n,greed upon, the 

 matter fell through, owing probably to the adventurer (as 

 they are called in Cornwall) not finding the market he ex- 

 pected for the proceeds, or that, after maturor consideration, 

 the prospects of finding a remunerative percentage of the 

 mineral did not seem so good as at first sight. 



A strongly marked and violent unconformability presents 

 itself everywhere between the Triassio deposits and the 



