﻿410 MB. L. BICHABDSON ON" THE BHJ3TIC AND [Aug. I905, 



There is obviously some peculiarity about the stratigraphical 

 sequence in this section. Observers are agreed that at the base 

 there are greenish marls : Tomes mentioned them as belonging to 

 the Keuper ; Mr. H. B. Woodward as belonging to the Rhaetic. If 

 they belong to the latter, then they must correspond either to the 

 green marls above the sandstone at the Quarella Quarry (p. 407), or 

 to some bed occupying the stratigraphical position of that which is 

 lettered b in the section on Stormy Down (p. 408). If it be considered 

 that they correspond to the former, the presence of ' black shales, with 

 thin bands of limestone ; Pecten valoniensis,' in the foregoing section 

 at Stormy-Down Cement-Works (p. 409), needs explanation ; and 

 again, if to the latter, the absence of the sandstone-deposit, such as 

 that seen on Stormy Down (Bed .a) requires accounting for. Charles 

 Moore, as already mentioned, commented upon the insignificance 

 here of the equivalent of the Rhaetic of the West of England. 

 Tomes thought that the greenish marls belonged to the Keuper, and 

 if his surmise be correct the Rhaetic Black Shales probably rest 

 thereupon non-sequentially, for the Pecten-~Beds occur at some height- 

 above the base of the series, where the sequence is complete. 



Not having had the opportunity of examining the beds which 

 may possibly correspond to those that compose the greater portion of 

 the Upper Rhaetic at other localities, I think that it is undesirable 

 to offer any suggestions. 



The Rhaetic Beds in the neighbourhood of Pyle are largely 

 represented by sandstones. In the recently-published Geological- 

 Survey Memoir on the district, there is an excellent account of bhe 

 sections available, and to that account I have nothing to add. 1 

 Attention, however, may be directed to the fact that Tawney appears 

 to have studied beds higher in the series than any seen of late years, 

 because he makes mention of limestones ' which . . ., from their 

 appearance and conchoidal fracture, remind one of the Cotham 

 Marble . . .' 2 He prefaced his observations on this tract with the 

 remark that ' The above-mentioned patch [was] sufficiently described 

 by Mr. Bristow,' and referred the reader to Rep. Brit. Assoc. 1864 

 (Bath) Trans. Sections, p. 50. In the place cited there is no mention 

 made of this Pyle, but Pylle Hill (Bristol) is referred to as a 

 locality visited by Bristow, for the purpose of making a detailed 

 section of the Rhaetic Series. 



IY. Additional Obsebvations on the Sully Beds. 



It is generally admitted that, towards the close of Keuper times,, 

 there was a great inland sea covering a large part of England, 

 which by degrees evaporated. As Mr. A. Rendle Short has pointed 

 out, the conditions were probably desertic, and therefore over that 

 area there would be a more or less uniformly-horizontal surface, 

 with gently- shelving shores, and occasional deeper pools and 



1 ' The Geology of the South-Wales Coalfield ; Pt. vi— The Geology of the 

 Country around Bridgend ' Mem. Geol. Surv. 1904, pp. 54-55. 



2 Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc. toI. xxii (1866) p. 70. 



