478 PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



Fig. 2. — Section of Lias and Carhoniferovs Limestone, at Whatley. 



J Drifted deposit, partly composed of a ferruginous clay, ft. in. 



■ 1_ enclosing blocks of Inferior Oolite 4 



7 r Grey clay with Argiope, Suessia, Spirifera, Pentacri- 



B. ^ 1 nites, &c 10 



a. Grrey laminated micaceous marl, without organisms . . 12 



C. Carboniferous Limestone, exposed 3 



The Carboniferous Limestone, which, though almost vertical, is 

 seen to have been worn down to a very horizontal surface, is only 

 open in this section for a few yards in length. 



The uppermost deposit (c) is much hidden by the vegetable growth 

 of the embankment, and must be as late as the Oolite, since it con- 

 tains blocks of that age, having many imperfect casts of Echinoder- 

 mata, with Lima gibhosa and Litliodomi. This is evidently a drifted 

 deposit, and has mixed up with it many blocks of sulphate of barytes. 

 The Oolite in this immediate neighbourhood, whenever it comes in 

 contact with the Carboniferous Limestone, puts on very peculiar mine- 

 ralogical conditions, its under sui^face being at times an iron-ore, 

 whilst at others it is very porous and full of canities, the matrix 

 being composed of sulphate of barytes. On the opposite side of the 

 roadway an oolitic rock is visible, which probably belongs to the 

 Fuller's earth, as the clays of this formation come in immediately 

 above it. 



B. The Lias, 2 feet in thickness, which is intermediate between 

 the Carboniferous Limestone and the Inferior Oolite, may be divided 

 into two parts : — the first (a) is composed of a bluish or grey la- 

 minated micaceous marl ; but after careful search I have hitherto 

 been unable to detect any fossils in it. 



6. The bed which follows is seen to rest immediately on the Car- 

 boniferous Limestone. In its upper part the fossils are rare, but, as 

 it reaches the limestone, they become more abundant, and the base- 

 ment is seen to be almost entirely composed of Brachiopoda , Echini, 

 Pentacrinites, (fee, which are held together by a somewhat friable 

 calcareous matrix. Occasionally, on the Carboniferous Limestone, its 

 base is converted into a thin indurated limestone, which is difficult 

 to separate from the older rock. 



That this remarkable representative of the Fontaine-etoupe-Four 

 Lias is very local, there cannot be a doubt ; for immediately below 

 the section I have given there is a large Carboniferous-limestone 



