DORSET-SOMERSET DISTRICT. 51 



Woolston Quarry. — Seven miles north by east of Sherborne, and three and a 

 half miles south-east of Castle Cary. About seventeen feet of limestone are worked 

 in this quarry, the whole of which is probably in the Parkinsoni-zone. It is note- 

 worthy that the Cephalopod facies hitherto so characteristic of No. 1 District 

 here begins to fail us, and immense quantities of Brachiopoda characterise the beds. 

 As the same facies is still better shown in Grove Quarries, together with probably 

 a more complete section, I will at once proceed to their description. 



Grove Quarries (see Profile, p. 52). — One and three quarter miles east-south- 

 east of Castle Cary. The South Quarry is nearer to Shotwell Farm than to Grove 

 Farm. The face is not so well weathered, but here, as in the other quarry and 

 also at Woolstone, the fossils are mainly obtained on fissure surfaces. The stone 

 itself will not work so as to admit of the fossils being extracted along the partings, 

 like the stone of Bradford Abbas and elsewhere. Hence, only those specimens 

 which weather out are obtained. This peculiarity would seem to hold good 

 throughout the same horizon in No. 2 District likewise. 



This particular quarry has the advantage over the others that it seems to afford 

 a tolerably complete section of the Inferior Oolite Limestone at this point. The 

 basal bed, only a few inches thick, is most probably in the Lower Division resting 

 directly on the sands. For palseontological purposes, therefore, everything outside 

 the Parlcinsoni-zone is atrophied in this immediate neighbourhood. The brown 

 limestones in thick blocks, measuring about nine feet, constitute the most 

 interesting feature, and if these beds require a name we might call them the 

 Trigonia Grits. The rare presence of Am. Parlrinsoni at the base is quite sufficient 

 to make us feel safe as to the geological position. Roughly speaking, we may 

 represent this fine mass of fossiliferous rock as being on the horizon of P x of the 

 coast-section, and as the representative of the Upper Trigonia Grit of the 

 Cotteswolds, which it does to a certain extent prefigure. It is, however, richer 

 in Gasteropoda than the Upper Trigonia Grit and thus helps to maintain the 

 character of the Dorset-Somerset District in spite of its poverty in Cephalopoda. 

 In the north quarry, which is more properly speaking Grove Quarry, the Trigonia 

 Grit is about the same thickness (nine feet), and the joint face of these beds was 

 one mass of fossils before the chisels of collectors began to deface the entablature. 



The species of Gasteropoda are clearly those which distinguish the lower beds 

 of the ParJcinsoni-zone throughout the district, and have certain affinities with 

 some of those of the Humjihriesianus-zone, but hardly any with the Gasteropoda 

 of the Lower Division such as are obtained in abundance at Bradford Abbas. 

 Owing to the rough nature of the matrix the specimens cannot be placed in the 

 first rank as to condition. Varieties of Cerithium sub-scalariforme and the so- 

 called C. contortum are plentiful. The latter is especially characteristic of this 

 horizon, and may be traced even into the Cotteswolds. 



