30 
THE (JEOLOGIST. 
Mendip district and elsewhere reveal contents of Secondary a^re. I 
noticed many years ago, when the railway was being made from Frome 
to Eadstock, that lead ore had been present in the inferior Oolite, where 
it reposes immediately upon the Carboniferous Limestone, at a spot near 
the letter "k " in the word " Pike " on the Ordnance map, about a mile 
(to scale) north of Frome. If my memory serves me, the ore occurred in 
veins in joints in the Oolite. This proves that, even if the lead veins of 
that district are not wholly of Secondary age, at any rate the deposit of 
ore was not concluded until after the deposition and solidification of the 
inferior Oolite. I am, Sir, faithfully vours, 
O. FisHEE, F.G.S. 
JElmstead, Colchester^ Nov. 10. 
Druid Sandstone. 
Deae Sie, — In your last number of the ' Geologist,' page 450, Mr. Ben- 
sted makes the remark, that the statement of Dr. Mantell still holds good, 
that no regular stratum of the Druid Sandstone has yet been discovered 
in this country ; and its geological position is still undetermined. 
The following observations will, I believe, throw some light upon this 
question. Close to the village of Broodm.ayne, about five miles from 
Dorchester, on the Wareham road, are several blocks of Druid Sandstone, 
in two fields on each side of the road, close to a farmhouse, marked 
" Little Mayne " on the map. These blocks have been a puzzle to the 
local archseologists, who have endeavoured to give them an antiquarian 
value, and to explain their arrangement as belonging to some ancient so- 
called " Druidical " work. TJiey are however a natural deposit, and as I 
conceive, are, so to speak, in situ ; that is to say, they have not travelled 
any distance from the place where they were formed. The locality is on 
the line of junction with the Chalk of a small outlier of the Lower Tertia- 
ries. These beds are extremely variable in character, and at this spot a 
fine sharp white sand crops out on the north side of the shallow valley in 
which the blocks lie. In the side of the road this sand has been cut into, 
and two of the blocks of sandstone are seen, one partly cropping out on 
the surface, with its lower portion embedded in its native sand. The other 
is entirely enveloped in the sand, except as far as it has been exposed in 
cutting the road. 
The blocks are evidently indurated masses, or septaria of this bed of 
sand. 
The denuding forces which have scooped out the valley, have removed 
the sand and left the blocks behind. 
There are numerous other blocks of a similar character on and beneath 
the lofty hill called Blackdown, near Portisham. These however are con- 
glomerates of large flints. Some lie on the top of the hill on the upper 
surface of the chalk, almost in situ, as at Mayne, and close to the Tertiary 
beds from which they came ; others have been carried by some torrential 
action into the deep valleys of Portisham and Bridehcad beneath. 
I remain, faithfully yours, 
6. FiSHEE. 
Jilmstead, Colchester, Dec. 10. 
