70 ME. L. RICHAKDSON ON THE EH^TIC OF [Feb. I O, I I r 



The higher beds are of megastomatos hemera, 1 and I collected 

 from them Radula pectinoides (Sowerby), Myoconcha psilonoti 

 Quenstedt, and Caloceras cLjohnstoni (Sow.). 



The precise junction of the Lower Lias with the Rhastic cannot be 

 determined, as there are no sections now open ; but, below the cherty 

 beds, ' near the cottage at Harptree Hill,' Mr. H. B. Woodward 

 observed ' hardened reddish-brown micaceous sand with Pullastra 

 arenicola' and in the same neighbourhood he also obtained Pteria 

 contorta and Chlamys valoniensis. 



Even the Keuper is cherty, as can be readily seen in the old 

 quarry near Eastwood House, East Harptree ; and thus it is 

 evident that the influence of the Old Red Sandstone of the North 

 and Egar Hills has made itself extensively felt. 



(P) The Nempnet Outliers. 



(i) Introduction. — The Nempnet outliers are situated between 

 the Carboniferous-Limestone masses of Broadfleld Down and the 

 Mendip Hills, which are here only some 3 miles apart. 



The red marls in the Yale of Wrington show frequent evidence 

 of the proximity of the Palaeozoic rocks, in the shape of massive 

 conglomerates, intercalated sandstones, and derived fragments of 

 Carboniferous rocks. The Lias, which reposes in hollows in the 

 Carboniferous Limestone of Broadfleld Down, is also frequently 

 conglomeratic, and the mass partakes of the nature of the Sutton 

 Stone of Glamorganshire. On Harptree Hill, in the Mendips again, 

 as already mentioned, are peculiarly- cherty Liassic beds; and so it 

 is not surprising to find that, in the intervening area, on the 

 jNempnet Hills, conglomerates of Rhsetic age occur. 



The Red Marls with their associated sandstones, and bands of 

 greenish-grey marl in their upper portion, are succeeded by the 

 Keuper Tea-green Marls, and these in turn by the Pteria- contorta 

 Shales. Lack of sections prevented me from ascertaining whether 

 there was any Bone-Bed present, or the nature of the Cotham Beds ; 

 but the Langport Beds are typically developed, and exposed in nume- 

 rous quarries. There are no Watchet Beds, and the Pleuromya- 

 Limestones of the Lower Lias follow the Langport Beds at once. 



The interesting feature of the outliers, at least of the Nempnet- 

 Butcombe outlier, is the occurrence of massive conglomerates, which 

 in places extend upwards — certainly from within a very short 

 distance of the top of the Tea-green Marls — into the Langport 

 Beds, if not higher, replacing, where they occur, the greater part of 

 the Pteria- contorta Shales, the Cotham Beds, as well as the Lang- 

 port Beds. The ' Butcombe Conglomerates,' as these clastic accumu- 

 lations may be termed, are well exposed at Cuckoo's Nest (half-way 

 between Butcombe and Nempnet) and near Butcombe Church. The 

 part exposed at the former place largely replaces the Pteria-con- 

 torta Shales, as it contains fragments of vertebrate-remains, Chlamys 

 valoniensis (Defrance), and Pteria contorta (Portlock). 



Por the convenience of the future student, the details which I 



1 ■ Geology in the Field ' (Jubilee vol. Geol. Assoc.) pt. ii, 1910, p. 336. 



