256 W. A. E. USSHER ON THE TRIASSIC 
be continuous with similar beds in Carentan canal, and analogous 
to those under the Diluvium in the commune of Lestre*, i 
Carentan is built for the most part on diluvial débris, which nearly 
everywhere covers the Keuper; some houses are, however, situated 
on Keuper rocks, which in places stain the soil. Reddish and erey 
or whitish and calcareous, sandstones are frequently visible in anit 
spots. They contain mica and débris of rose-tinted felspar, and 
are for the most part stained by red marls. Under these lies a 
conglomerate, composed of a calcareous sandy clay paste enclosing 
fragments of red or greenish marls, quartz, quartzite, and various 
other rocks. This conglomerate sometimes assumes a slightly honey- 
combed (lit. rotten) appearance, where the marl fragments have 
been dissolved out of their cavities. These different rocks constitute 
the bottom and sides of the canal which leads from the port to the 
seay. 
In walling Carentan quay basin in 1845 a hard white rock was 
encountered under about 26 feet of alluvial and estuarine deposits 
associated with peatt; though not further commented on, it appears 
as if the Trias had been reached. 
I was unable to find the locality of the quarries of l’Eau Parti: 
it is probably somewhere near the confluence of the streams on the 
south and east of Carentan. The following section of the quarries 
is given by Bonissent § :— 
1. Gravel and clays, old alluvia. 
2. Quartzo-calcareous (polygénique) puddingstone with feeble traces of manga- 
nese. 
3. Hard red marl mottled white. 
Under the puddingstone a greyish sandstone, sometimes slightly calca- 
reous, is visible. 
4. Caleareous (polygénique) sandstone. 
5. Very solid, hard red marl. 
To the east of Carentan the Keuper is well developed in the 
communes of St. Hilaire, Catz, Beuzeville-les-Veys, &c. It is repre- 
sented to a depth varying from about 3 to 65 feet by very compact 
greyish (polygénique) calcareous sandstone and conglomerate quarried 
for building-purposes ||. In the quarries of Chapelle St. Nicholas 
(Beuzeville-les-Veys) very compact variegated Keuper marls, some- 
times shaly, are overlain by grey diluvium of pebbles and sand. 
At a place called Le Cavé, to the east of the church of the commune 
of Catz the same compact greyish calcareous sandstone above men- 
tioned occurs. 
M. Bonissent remarks** that of all the localities he had visited 
the succession of the Keuper beds can be inferred only from the 
quarries of Montmartin en Graignes, worked for building-purposes 
from time immemorial. At Carentan, judging from inquiries made 
on the spot, these quarries appear to be almost unknown. I only 
succeeded in finding a few shallow pits by repeated inquiries at the 
I cannot believe that M. Bonissent’s section was 
* Bonissent, op. cit. p. 267. t Jb. p. 268. t Lb. p. 412. § Jb. p. 269. 
|| 26. p. 269. 4 Jb. p. 387. ** J. p. 269. 
houses en route. 
