ETHERIDGE DEVOis'lAN liUCKS AIS'D EOSSILS. 581 



It IS surrounded ou all sides by the Lower New Red Sandstone ; and 

 to the south and east tnere occurs a series of fissile, thin-bedded, 

 chocolate-coloured slates, which agree in every particular mth those 

 on the eastern slopes of the Quantock i^ills. These slates contain no 

 fossils, so far as I was enabled to dot .mine ; but that they are con- 

 nected (beneath the thin covering of the JSTew Eed) with the main 

 mass of the Quantock Hills is evident ; for exposed masses at Ash- 

 ford, Eadlet Parm, and Halsey Cross connect the slates of Nether 

 Stowey (which are of Middle Devonian age) with those of the village 

 of Cannington, between which, as before stated, and Cannington 

 Park to the north, a considerable exposure of red slates takes place, 

 which are again seen at Charlinch, two miles to the south-east, 

 where an extensive fault brings them to the surface. Considerable 

 doubt has arisen as to the age of the limestone of Cannington Park. 

 It has generally been assigned to the Carboniferous period, but the 

 almost total absence of fossils renders the task of fixing its true place 

 extremely difficult ; if, however, position, lithological characters, 

 what few fossils there are, and peculiarities of structure may be 

 depended upon, it so strongly resembles the smooth blue, pink, 

 grey, and red-veined argillaceous porcelain-like limestones of Tor- 

 quay and Newton Bushel in South Devon, and those of Adscombe 

 and Stowey on the Quantocks, that, to my mind, it cannot be 

 distinguished from them : and, again, it has no resemblance to 

 any division of the largely developed series of Carboniferous Lime- 

 stone of the adjacent Mendip Hills, nor to any in the Bristol area. 

 This limestone dips to the south-east ; and upon it rest the choco- 

 late-coloured slates, which are rolled or contorted, but so masked by 

 the overlying New lied Sandstone, that its clear connexion with the 

 limestones and slates of the Quantock Hills cannot be satisfactorily 

 traced; nevertheless, from its character, position, and association 

 with the slates, there is every probability that the limestone of Can- 

 nington is of the age of the slates amongst which it exists, and by 

 which.it is surrounded. It is the most easterly outlier of the Devo- 

 nian rocks in West Somerset*. 



2. The Quantock Hills. — This range of hills, which stretches across 

 West Somerset from Quantock Head on the north-west to West 

 Monckton on the south-east, is composed on the west side (or along 

 its strike, which corresponds to its geographical bearing) of coarse and 

 fine red and grey sandstones, which form the base of the series of 

 rocks constituting the structure of the Quantock range. All the 

 rock-masses beneath and to the west of Staple-Hill Foot, Bicknoller, 

 Crowcombe, Bagborough, Cothelstone, Kingstone, &c. are covered by 

 the Lower New Red Sandstone and Conglomerate, which occupy 

 the vaUey from Williton and Stampford Brett on the north, to Stog- 

 umber, Lydeard St. Laurence, Milverton, and Taunton on the south. 



* The section (fig. 2, p. 584) will show, through the patches of exposed slates 

 between Cannington and the Quantock Hills and those that surround it on 

 thi*ee sides, how these limestones by an opposite dip are related to Ihose of 

 Adscombe and Over Stowey to the west, all further evidence of them being lost 

 to the east of Cannington, under the New Ked sandstones and marls, and llie 

 alluvium of the Somersetsliire marshes. 



