384 ME. L. KICHAKDSON OK THE INFERIOR OOLITE [Nov. I907, 



Thus it cannot be said that the Inferior Oolite of this tract has 

 received scant attention : what it has not received has been a 

 detailed investigation with a view to (1) ascertaining what beds are 

 really present, (2) correlating the beds seen in the various sections, 

 and (3) determining the equivalent deposits elsewhere. 



In this paper an endeavour has been made to give these details. 



(i) Geographical extent of the Inferior Oolite. — North 

 of Kilmersdon, near Radstock, and between there and Bath, the 

 Inferior Oolite crops out along the sides of the valley occupied by 

 the Somer, its tributaries, and the Bristol Avon between Twerton 

 (near Bath) and Winsley (near Bradford-on-Avon). 



"While to the east, near Bradford-on-Avon, the Inferior Oolite 

 dips down and disappears beneath younger strata, to the west it 

 gradually rises, cropping out in the hillsides of the much-dissected 

 upland, and capping outliers situated in advance of the main 

 escarpment. The outliers are Stantonbury Hill, the conical Barrow 

 Hills, and the neighbouring eminence in Timsbury parish called 

 Timsbury ' Sleight/ * Dundry Hill is mentioned by Conybeare & 

 Phillips in their graphically-worded review of ' the course of the 

 oolitic hills in the vicinity of Bath,' 2 as another of these outliers. 

 In this matter they were perfectly correct. As regards its Inferior- 

 Oolite deposits of Tpre-Garantiance date, Dundry Hill is an outlier of 

 that type of rocks which obtains in Dorset ; but, as regards those of 

 Garantiance and post- Garantiance date, it is essentially an outlier 

 of the Doulting-Bath type. 



South of Kilmersdon the Inferior Oolite forms level tracts, 

 wrapping round the eastern end of the Mendip Hills, and extending 

 westwards on their southern side to within a mile or so of Shepton 

 Mallet. In places it rests directly upon the Palaeozoic rocks ; and, 

 where such is the case, it is frequently somewhat difficult at first 

 sight to determine the actual line of junction. 



(ii) On the lower and upper limits of the Inferior- 

 Oolite Series. — In the Bath-Doulting district there is no Inferior- 

 Oolite deposit of pre- Garantiance date. 



The deposit of Garantianai hemera is, of course, the equivalent of 

 the Upper Trigonia-Giit of the Cotteswold Hills. In the section by 

 the side of the road, a quarter of a mile south of Midford Railway- 

 Station, it is seen as a deposit 5 feet thick, and in all respects 

 similar to the "Upper Trigonia-Qiit of those hills. But westwards, 

 at Timsbury Sleight, and southwards at Wellow, the greater portion 

 of the ' grit ' is conglomerate — similar to the ' Maes-Knoll Con- 



1 In answer to an enquiry as to the probable derivation and meaning of this 

 word ' Sleight,' Mr. Buckman informs me (in Hit., September 4th, 1906) that 

 'Sleight is a variant of the English slide, coming from a Keltic base. There 

 is Irish slaet, a sliding-place. Slade, as in Grurney Slade [near Binegar], 

 and S lad Valley [near Stroud] are other forms. The Irish Slievh (said to 

 mean a mountain, a slope, as in Slievh Beg) is an analogous form, and is 

 equivalent to the English slip.' 



2 ' Outlines of the Geology of England & Wales' pt. i (1822) p. 253. 



