LOWER LIAS : SHEPTON MALLET. 85 
Ammonites many of them pyritic, including A. oxynotus, A. 
Birchii, and A. trivialis. 
Lower down the bed of tlie stream, bands of stone occur here 
and there in the clays, giving rise to ledges that form small 
cascades along the course of the stream. 
The brickyard south-west of Hbrablotton Mill, showed about 
12 feet of blue shaly clay passing up into grey and brown cla}^ 
with a layer of septaiian nodules. Here I obtained Ammonites 
semiciJstdtus, and Aricula. 
From the bluish-grey marly and slightly micaceous shale, thrown 
up during a well-sinking west of Sutton near Alhampton, I 
obtained a number of small pyritic fossils, including Ammonites 
Birchii, A. Simpsoni (not previously recorded from the south of 
England), Gryphaa, Avicula, and Pectcn. It is interesting to 
learn that in 1729 )'. Woodward notvd that Ammonites occurred 
in vast numbers in a marl-pit at this locality.* 
Blue clay weathering brown on top, with impersistent hands of 
earthy limestone, containing much iron-pyrites, and numerous 
small Ammonites, including A. oxi/notns, Bclcrnnitcs, Rhynchonella, 
&c., was exposed in cuttings near the Evercreech station, and near 
Priestleigh. But I obtained no fossils in the excavations north 
of Evercreech station, at the Somerset Pipe, Tile, and Brick 
Works, where grey slightly micaceous clays with a layer of cement 
stones, were exposed. 
Shepton Mallet, Wells, and Uphill. 
Proceeding towards the Mendip Hills, there is evidence on the 
north of Pennard Hill of a greater development of limestone in 
the zone of Ammonites Bucklandi, than has been noticed else- 
where in Somersetshire on the south side of Meiulip. There is 
also some attenuation in the beds belo\v. 
In the railway-cutting we.st of Pylle station, there may be seen 
about 10 feet of blue shaly clays, containing Rhynchonella calcicosta, 
Pecten, and Rhyncholites. The clay rests on a band of limestone 
with large specimens of Lima yiyantea, and on alternating beds 
of grey earthy limestone and dark shale*. At the quarry 
belonging to the Somerset Lime and Cement Company, lower beds 
are shown as follows : 
("Marly limestones and clay - - - "] 
I Grey limestones and clays or shales with | 
Lower Lias -<( Ammonites Bucklandi ... J>32 feet. 
| Limestones, about 15 bands, with thin part- 1 
[_ ings of shale -J 
The beds of bluish and yellowish clay and limestone present a 
riband-like appearance, the stone being iron-stained on the joint- 
face?. Pyrites occurs here and there in thin layers. Fossils are 
scarce, but large specimens of Lima girjanicu, Gryphcea arcuata, 
Ostrca irregularis, and bones of Ichthyosaurus are to be found. 
The stone is burnt for the preparation of lime and selenitic 
cement. 
* Nat. Hint. Foss. England, vol. i. Part 2, pp. 26, 27. 
