GLOUCESTER, DORSET, AND SOMERSET. O 



bring that about), there would not be much difference between the 

 Ham-Hill section and several other sections near Sherborne. 



Fig. 2. — Comparative Sections of Beds at Ham Hill and 

 Babylon Hill. 



Ham Hill. 



Babylon Hill. 



Bedded 

 brown 

 sandy - 

 free- 

 stones. 



I te 



Dorset Cephalopoda-bed. 



^ 







Brown sands, 

 with occasional 

 blocks and 

 bands of sandy 

 freestones con- 

 taining Oolitic 

 fossils. 



- " i. 's , ,r T ' i ' . 



Position of Gloucestershire 

 Cephalopoda-bed. 



Ham Hill has always been a puzzle to the geologist ; but if we 

 place it on the same horizon as the so-called " Lias Sands " at Brad- 

 ford, the difficulty is at once cleared up. 



Mr. Moore, in his paper " On the Middle and Upper Lias of the 

 South-west of England," speaking of Ham Hill says : — 



" The workable freestone at this spot is 58 feet thick, and almost 

 entirely composed of comminuted shells, united by an irony cement, 

 and is a remarkable deposit ; for though attaining so considerable a 

 thickness, it does not appear to be represented in any other locality. 

 It has been largely worked for centuries, and yields a very excellent 

 stone, of a light-brown colour, due to the presence of carbonate of 

 iron, an analysis of the deposit proving it to contain 14 per cent of 

 metallic iron " *. 



The best Gloucestershire equivalent of this bed is to be seen in 

 the straight wall of rock at Crickley Hill, which latter section we 

 consider the equivalent of the freestone-beds at Ham Hill, and the 



* Proceedings of the Somersetshire Archaeological and Natural-History 

 Society, rol. xiii. 1865-G6. 



