Yol. 67.] WEST, MID, AND EAST SOMEKSET. 51 



(D) The Langport-Howley Area. 



This area is represented in Sheets xviii (old series) & 311 (new 

 series) of the Geological Survey map. 



With the exception of the neighbourhood of Hatch Beauchamp, 

 where the beds are affected by a fault, the uppermost deposits of 

 the Keuper and the lower strata of the Rhaeric crop out in a bold 

 bank that is continuous from Langportto Pickeridge Hill. Thence 

 south-eastwards for a space of about 5 miles the outcrop of the 

 Rhsetic is concealed under the Cretaceous rocks ; but the Pteria- 

 contorta Shales are seen again near Knapp Farm, in the deeply- 

 excavated Yarty Valley. 1 



In the escarpment between Langport and Pickeridge Hill there 

 are hut few sections of the beds under consideration now open. 



In the side of the track leading down the hill to Wick, the 

 following details may be observed: at the top rubbly cream-coloured 

 beds, belonging to the Langport Beds ; a band of hard limestone 

 [4(2) of the Cotham Beds], which rests upon a greenish marly 

 shale [4 (3)], and this in turn upon the Black Shales. The hard 

 limestone in these is Bed 5 b. At Bed Hill, the Red and Tea-green 

 Marls of the Keuper are finely displayed ; but the most interesting 

 feature in this neighbourhood is the bored Sun-Bed. 2 Similar 

 phenomena are to be observed at Breach Hill in East Somerset, and 

 indicate a non-sequence. Near the Parkfield Monument and close 

 to the main road, is a quarry in the Lower Lias opened up in 

 beds equivalent to those numbered 30 to 38 (in my notation) at 

 Butleigh and Camel Hill (pp. 38 & 46 respectively). 



Between the Parkfield Monument and Fivehead there are no 

 sections to record; but at the latter place — close to the main road — 

 is a quarry in which the section represented in the appended diagram 

 (fig. 4, p. 52) can be made out. It was interesting to find so 

 unmistakable a representative of the Cotham Marble, here as at 

 Hun don (p. 39) associated with some very dark sticky clay. 



At Crimson Hill, near Hatch Beauchamp, the escarpment is 

 pierced by the tunnel that allowed passage for the now almost 

 wholly destroyed Bridgwater Canal. It was from pieces of rock 

 that had heen brought out of this tunnel and tipped near the 

 quarries at Beer Crocombe, that Moore obtained the extraordinary 

 suite of fossils that he described as having come from the ' Flinty 

 Bed' of Beer Crocombe. 3 He was at first puzzled as to the 

 precise stratigraphical horizon of this ' Flinty Bed ' ; so was the 

 Rev. P. B. Brodie, who sent a selection of specimens to Wright : the 

 latter could only suggest that it might be equivalent to the 4 Cypris- 

 Bed,' or Esiheria Bed as it is now called, of such Gloucestershire 

 sections as that at Garden Cliff. 4 However, Moore came to the 

 conclusion that the bed occurred in the ' Avicula-contorta Zone' 5 ; 

 and, although it has been suggested that all his specimens may 



1 Proc. Geol. Assoc, vol. xix (1906) p. 409. 



2 See Vert. Sect. Sheet 47, No. 5 [Curry Eivell] Geol. Surv. 1873; and 

 H. B. Woodward & J. H. Blake, Geol. Mag. vol. ix (1872) p. 197. 



3 Q. J. G. S. vol. xvii (1861) p. 486. 



4 Ibid. vol. xvi (1860) p. 384. 5 Ibid. vol. xvii (1861) p. 486. 



e2 



