Geology. 225 



Mendips, near Ilminster, whence came that fine and unique 

 collection of Icthyosauri, Pelagosauri, and Fish, now in the 

 cases'of the Moore collection at our Museum. It may be in- 

 teresting to give here a typical section of Middle and Lower 

 Lias beds, showing how remarkably they thin out in some 

 localities. It is taken from a roadside section near Paulton. 



1. Middle Lias. Various beds of rubbly Marlstone 

 'Gray sandy bed with Leptcena, ros- 



trata. Foraminifera. Belemnites 

 clavatus. B. acutus, etc. 



2. Lower Lias. I Stone with A. raricostatus 



Gray sand with Spirifer WalcoUii, 

 ■ >''' Gryphtsa incurva, &c. Belemnites 

 ^/clavatus. B. acutus &c. 



3. Rhaetic- White Lias, various beds 



We now pass on to the sands which come in 

 at the top of the Upper Lias, and at the base of 

 the Oolitic series, and are so well developed Jaround our city. 

 They consist of yellow and micaceous sand, with bands of a 

 tough, dense, arenaceous limestone called " Sand-burrs." 

 These latter sometimes contain organic remains, and have 

 been the subject of much controversy as to their classifica- 

 tion ; on the one side it is maintained that they are Liassic, 

 on the other that they ought to be classed with the Oolites. 

 Prof. Phillips has judiciously called them Midford Sands, 

 a most appropriate name, indicative of their neutral position 

 as passage beds between these two great formations, and as 

 having been first studied by William Smith at Midford — a 

 picturesque little village about 3 miles from Bath, where the 

 " Father of English Geology " lived and worked. The late 

 Chas. Moore considered them to be Oolitic, and^adopted the 

 nomenclature given to them by William Smith'who named 



