104 LIAS OF ENGLAND AND WALKS: 
expansion of the Southerdown Series, or (as seems probable) to 
the formation as we proceed westwards, of conglomeratic beds at 
higher stages in the Lower Lias. 
Passing eastwards along the coast, over the irregular surface 
of the Carboniferous Limestone, we find the pale Sutton Beds 
banked up against the older rock (see Fig. 45), and at the base 
of the first cave they occupy a large hollow eroded in that rock, 
and descend to the beach-level. Here the Sutton Beds are 40 
feet or more in thickness, and it may be noted that the lowest 
bed of conglomerate is very coarse, and of a bluish colour, similar 
to the basement-bed on the further side of Witches Point. 
Beyond this first cave, the Carboniferous Limestone again 
rises, and we may readily follow the pale Sutton Beds, which 
appear in marked contrast with the dark bluish-grey Carboniferous 
rock beneath. Boih groups have an easterly clip, and the strati- 
fication in places is fairly conformable, but further east the 
Carboniferous Limestone rolls over abruptly in the same direction, 
and the discordance between it and the overlying strata is great. 
The Sutton Beds appear now as mas-ive strata assuming a 
brown aspect where weathered, and the lower layers are very 
irregular in thickness. We can fix no divisional line between 
them and the overlying Southerndown Beds, for the cliffs, which 
rise to a height of nearly 150 feet, are for the most part perpen- 
dicular. 'Ihe Sutton Beds however gradually descend to the sea- 
level by the large " Fairy Cave."* To the east of this, their pro- 
longation on the foreshore is terminated by a fault; but they are 
again upraised, for a space, a little further on by another fault, 
being seen only in ledges on the foreshore. Thence they do 
not reappear until we come to the cliffs on either side of the 
Witches Point at Dunraveu, as observed by Tawney and 
others. 
From the Fairy Cavern eastwards, we can again note the 
upward succession of the beds from the base of the Sutton Series 
into the lower portion of the Southerndown Beds, but the cliffs 
above are inaccessible. Here we find on top of the Carboniferous 
Limestone, a thickness of 25 feet of pale conglomeratic limestones, 
alternating with pale limestones like the Sutton Stone. These, as 
at Sutton, are surmounted by grey and bluish grey limestones 
(4 feet 6 inches thick), which form a connecting link with the 
conglomeratic limestones of the Southerndown Series above. In 
these the limestones become streiked with indurated shaly bands, 
which present a wavy appearance. Here the highest bed we can 
reach is about 50 feet above the Carboniferous Limestone ; it is 
a limestone with prominent fucoidal markings, but bands of this 
nature occur at various horizons in the Southerndown Series, and 
also in the ordinary beds of Lias above. 
Passing by the faulted tract to the east, where three great 
buttresses of rock with perpendicular faces are presented to 
view, we come to what may be termed the main section of Southern- 
* See Sections by Tomes, Quart. Journ. Qeol. Soc., vol. xl. p. 357 ; and Lucy, 
Proc. Cotteswold Club., vol. viii. Section D., p. 254. 
